Former Manchester United player Quinton Fortune believes that Roy Keane’s captaincy was crucial to their success.
Fortune signed for United in 1999 and was used sparingly despite his ability to play in defence and midfield, and left for Bolton Wanderers in 2006.
Throughout that time he saw players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney arrive at the club, but speaking to 1337 Games, he picked Keane as the most important leader in the dressing room.
He said: “Everyone has a different style of play now, and the manager has his own way of doing things and you have to respect that. But we were very fortunate to have Sir Alex who created the culture that was just relentless.
“There was a core group of players that just kept that standard every single day, and that started with the captain, Roy Keane – the boss didn’t have to say much in training every day because it was player-led, set by Keane.
“He would just have to say ‘this is the passing drill we are doing’, and it would be at max tempo, a rondo at max tempo – you’d go in the middle and you’d stay in there for a while as guys were fizzing the ball, and that’s exactly how we trained every day. I’m not there at Carrington every day now so I don’t know what they’re doing for training, but we were very fortunate to be under Sir Alex.
“But the new guys coming in now look like they want to look for that extra 1%, listening to Sir Dave Brailsford. The guy is on the money the way he speaks about relentless pushing for that 1% improvement in the team, and the culture he wants to create is what we had under Sir Alex. When you get the culture right, all the other stuff will follow."
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