Keane’s brutal assessments are often levelled at his former club, but American coach Marsch felt that it was strange that Keane is so revered in the UK as one of the top football pundits. He rarely aimed those barbs at Marsch’s Leeds during his 12 months at Elland Road, but has still been questioned by the ex-MLS stalwart.
Jesse Marsch called Roy Keane “kind of an a******” in a stinging critique of the Manchester United icon’s punditry. The Irishman has become a familiar face on Sky Sports during their Super Sunday programme and rarely fails to hide his true opinions on the show.
“It’s always interested me that people love Roy Keane so much and his commentary because I think Roy can be kind of an a******,” Marsch told Up Front With Simon Jordan. “But there is something in English culture about the negative, edgy, cutting, that’s the truth.
“It is like he says it like it is. In America, our truth is that we believe we can achieve great things, we believe in ourselves and if people want to knock us down, we want to try more. So when I have positive takes on certain things, that’s not my trying to be something different or trying to be American, that’s how I feel.”
Marsch is yet to take up another role since leaving Leeds, but was surprised to have been given the job at the time as he pleaded with the club’s chiefs not to part ways with Bielsa. “I felt like Leeds was a club with a big heart, but I knew it was going to be a massive challenge,” he added.
“I didn’t even want to take the job at first. When they called me, I pleaded with them to keep Marcelo Bielsa. They just got to the point where they felt that they had to make a change.”
But he was placed at the helm for just a year and even though Marsch was backed by Keane after his dismissal, it seemingly has done no favours with the American who described the pundit as an “a******”.
