Former Premier League striker, Kevin Lisbie, raised the lid on his experiences by playing under Roy Keane at Ipswich Town.
The Jamaican international striker played 113 times in the Premier League, scoring 14 goals and providing five assists, on the most famous for Charlton Athletic in English High Volt.
In addition to addicks, Lisbie has also experienced stays with Derby, Colchester and Ipswich Town, where he joined the legend of Manchester United Keane.
Keane, known as a midfielder without frills and freelancers who required the highest standards of her teammates, had a brief management career of 181 games in Sunderland and Ipswich, before moving on to media work.
However, despite two solid spells, he did not quite have the same level of success he has achieved during his play days.
And, in a recent podcast, Lisbie revealed what life under Keane looked like, although he admitted that her short launch under the legend of the Premier League was not exactly the most pleasant in his career.
Kevin Lisbie played two games under Roy Keane while the latter was the director of the city of Ipswich
The ex-first first league attacker came to the ranks of Charlton before joining Colchester
Lisbie said that after a pre-season defeat, Keane had spent ’40 minutes to hammer players’
“I would say it was the worst moment, but I forgot Roy!” I totally forgot that, I tried to delete this from my memory ” told Lisbie to the podcast undr the cosh.
“We did a pre-season tour in Ireland, we lost 2-1 and he spent 40 minutes hammering players (individually).
“” You will work in McDonald’s in a few weeks … I heard that we refused an offer of 1 million pounds sterling for you and I would have taken his hand for that now … “
“ I had really marked that day, so I was sitting with a smile thinking that he had nothing to say about me, he will compliment me, but he just approached me and said: “And I don’t love you. I don’t like your body language and I don’t like more of you. Yeah, yeah, you suck my teeth, you will not play for me”
“We returned, and I have never played for him again, so at least he was a man of speech!” It was literally everything, and he just said, “Try to find a club”.
Lisbie only played twice under Keane in Ipswich, the two victories at the end of the 2008-2009 campaign.
Keane had resumed the end of the season after Jim Magilton was dismissed in April, before Lisbie embarked on a succession of loan spells, first in the former Club Colchester United, and later at Leyton Orient.
At 29, when Keane took care of the tractor boys, Lisbie was one of the most senior players in the locker room, although he then suggested that the former star of the Republic of Ireland preferred young players.
Keane spent almost two years in charge of the tractor boys before leaving in January 2011
The Jamaican star Lisbie then joined Leyton Orient where he was in the books for four years
“I don’t think he was too interested in having senior pros, I think he preferred to have the young generation he could model. I don’t know if it is insecurity.
“Ben Thatcher was there at the time, he tried to release Ben but he retired that year. Roy told him that he could so much left but Ben wanted to stay.
“He brought it to 6 am every day and lived about two hours away. I remember when he told him he had to come to Christmas. As we go out, there was a helicopter on our training ground.
“He landed on the ground, and Ben Thatcher is exhausted in his boots!” And Roy Keane was like (shaking his head).
Keane would remain in charge of Ipswich until January 2011, finishing 15th in 2009-10 in what was his first full season at the club.
In the meantime, Lisbie then played for people like Stevenage, Barnet, Whitehawk, Cry Valley and VCD Athletic in 2022 before retiring and going to training.
