Bruno Fernandes vs Roy Keane: Man United captains locked in bitter war of words

Former and current Manchester United captains Roy Keane and Bruno Fernandes are at loggerheads. Fernandes has accused Keane of telling a "lie" about his pursuit of assists in the English Premier League and of putting wrong "words in my mouth" in a recent podcast.

Keane had recently hit out at Bruno Fernandes, claiming that the Portuguese midfielder was prioritising his personal assists over Man United's interests to create a single-season record. The comments were made after Man United's 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest.

Bruno Fernandes vs Roy Keane: Bitter war of words

While featuring on The Overlap podcast, Keane said: "After the [Forest] game he got interviewed and he said, the captain of Manchester United said: 'A few times, I probably should have shot but I made them passes.' Wow. How can your mindset of a footballer be going into a match to be about an individual record? He won't be winning trophies, not with that mindset of the team."

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While Fernandes' actual comments were: "There were probably moments today when I should have passed instead of shot. I'm very happy for the assist, but more than that, I'm happy for the win and to finish the season on a high."

Following it, Fernandes, who equalled the all-time assists record in the Forest game and created a new record of 21 assists on the final day of the Premier League against Brighton, accused Keane of lying on another podcast.

"Like I've always said, I don't mind criticism. I've always taken criticism from everyone and anyone and I never reply to anything or whatsoever," Fernandes said on The Diary of a CEO podcast.

"People have an opinion; they think it's good, bad, whatever. What I don't like is when people lie about things and [in] this case that you said about Roy Keane basically what he said is a lie because… either he saw some other interview or he can't say that I said one thing that I've just not said and luckily for me is everything on record.

"I accept his criticism, I accept that he might like me as a player or not, like me as a person or not. But what I don't like is that he puts words in my mouth that have not been said. That's the only thing I don't like."

Keane is yet to respond to the accusation, but he did make a post on Instagram, which the fans are linking with Fernandes. He posted a picture of a braying donkey with the caption: "Too much attention makes a donkey think he's a lion".

Was that social media post a dig at Fernandes? Possibly yes, and it can further worsen the relationship between Man United players and the experts.

Earlier in the season, defender Lisandro Martinez was involved in a tussle with legends Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt for criticism over his performance.