Roy Keane shows true colours with Declan Rice comments after questioning £105m Arsenal man

Roy Keane insists he wasn’t shocked by astonishing free-kick double against - despite his previous criticism of the midfielder. Rice put in the driving seating in their quarter-final with a before Mikel Merino struck to make it 3-0.

While Rice is regarded as one of the ’s best middlemen, has taken numerous verbal swipes at the former star over the years. However, the great has proved he is able to dish out an odd dollop of praise too as he assessed the Gunners’ first leg win over the 15-time European champions, suggesting he always had belief in him.

“ has great technique in terms of striking the ball,” he said on the brought to you by Sky Bet. “Those two goals against Real Madrid, I was not that shocked that he did it.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

"He has got that in his locker. The second goal was fantastic. If Rice can keep getting more goals, then he can be on a whole different level like some of the greater players out there. The goals add to it.”

Rice has been left bemused by pundits' criticism that he doesn't score enough. Asked by last year if he thought it was fair, he said: “No, not really.

“Because , [Graeme] Souness, [Jamie] Redknapp, people that talk about my goalscoring ability, if you looked at their goals, they didn’t score hundreds in their career.

“But they’re remembered for what they did as midfield players: Roy Keane breaking up play, being a hard-tackling midfielder, won loads of titles for United. The same with Souness.

“So I don’t know why when it comes to me it’s all about goals, because it’s never been my game. But since I’ve been scoring, no one has said anything!”

Keane has previously questioned the £105million transfer fee the Gunners paid for Rice. Speaking right after the move, the Irishman said: "They've obviously paid way too much for him. He's not worth over £100m."

He had already been on Rice’s case during his time at West Ham, saying: "For all the talk about him, a lot of good PR coming out of West Ham... I think he needs to do a lot more.”

Keane also took a swipe during Euro 2024 after Rice had hit back at the criticism of England’s dreary group stage performances. He said: “The modern player seems to be a bit more delicate to criticism.

"I know there’s more of it because of social media particularly, but again these players… I judge players by actions.”

But Keane was full of praise for Rice and Arsenal in general after the Real game, describing it as a “proper brilliant European performance”.

Arsenal, 11 points behind in the Premier League with just seven matches to play, will return to action at home to Brentford on Saturday before they head to the Spanish capital for the return leg on Wednesday.

and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our