Roy Keane and Bruno Fernandes bury public feud after direct phone call

Roy Keane and Bruno Fernandes have settled their public disagreement after the Manchester United legend called the club’s current captain for what he described as a “lovely chat” covering the misunderstanding that had played out across rival podcasts.

The dispute originated when Fernandes accused Keane of telling a “lie” on The Overlap podcast, after Keane claimed the Portuguese midfielder had said he preferred to pass rather than shoot while chasing the Premier League assist record. Fernandes pushed back on The Diary of a CEO podcast, insisting his actual words were the opposite, and said he wanted to speak with Keane directly to clear the air.

Speaking on Wednesday’s Stick to Football podcast, Keane confirmed Fernandes had reached out and that he had returned the call. “He apologised, I forgave him, no problem,” Keane said, before adding with characteristic dry humour that the exchange was genuinely warm. “No, there was a reaction after what we said on the podcast a few weeks ago and he reached out to me and wanted a chat… I called him and we had a lovely chat.”

Keane acknowledged that the nature of live punditry and podcasting can lead to comments being miscommunicated. “Sometimes you think you say something afterwards and you communicate something and it doesn’t come across properly, so people get upset,” he said. “He said he wanted to talk to me and we had a nice, mature conversation.”

The former United captain was careful to frame the call as an exception rather than a new habit, noting he prefers to keep a professional distance from current players. “I like having boundaries with players. I don’t want to be speaking to players every few weeks or their agents, I don’t want to go down that road, but every now and then a player might reach out, so I think it was important I spoke to him.”

Keane said the conversation left him in good spirits. “He’s obviously a big player for United, I’m an ex-United player and I think the idea of this communicating and having a proper conversation, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I think he did as well. Nice chat about a bit of everything and I felt better afterwards.”