Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill has urged assistant Roy Keane to end his long-running feud with former Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson.
During their 12 years together at United, eight of which Keane spent a captain, the pair helped bring seven English Premier League titles, one Champions League trophy and four FA Cups to Old Trafford.
But the relationship between the duo became increasingly bitter since Keane left United for Scottish giants Celtic after launching a withering attack on some of his team-mates during an interview with United's in-house television channel, MUTV, that was never broadcast, in November 2005.
Since then both Ferguson and Keane have criticised one another in their respective autobiographies, but O'Neill said now was the right time for them to bury the hatchet.
"Manchester United have been incredibly successful and these men were two fundamental factors in this," said O'Neill, quoted by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Monday.
"The manager's obviously very important, having been able to oversee success for such a considerable amount of time," added O'Neill, who like Keane played under celebrated manager Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest.
"To stay at any football club for such a length of time (Ferguson was in charge at Old Trafford for 26-and-a-half years) is incredible; to stay at a club like Manchester United that was demanding then sustaining such success is even more so.
"Roy Keane was a vital cog in that. If you were to ask Sir Alex Ferguson, I'd bet one of the top three or four signings he made would be Roy Keane. And he signed some very fine players. That's how important Roy was to him.
"The two of them were brilliant for each other over a number of years and I think that's something that shouldn't be forgotten over time.
"People can have their arguments and who am I to step into anyone else's argument, who am I to intervene?
"I'm not, but what I maintain is that the two of them were magnificent for each other and from an outsider's viewpoint it'd be nice if at some stage or another they recognise that publicly.
"I know that deep down they know they were superb for each other," former Northern Ireland midfielder O'Neill insisted.
Source: AFP
