Roy Keane held nothing back when slamming England fans as 'arrogant' live on ITV

Keane made his feelings clear.

Roy Keane held nothing back when discussing England’s past record at major tournaments and fan expectations amid their Euro 2024 semi-final win over the Netherlands.

Ollie Watkins’ dramatic strike in second half injury time secured a second consecutive appearance at a European Championship final for Gareth Southgate’s side.

Harry Kane had earlier levelled the scores for England from the penalty spot after Xavi Simons’ long-distance opener for the Netherlands.

 

England will now look to win their first men’s tournament since the 1966 World Cup – a gap which is now standing at 58 years.

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Before the Netherlands clash got underway, the ITV studio discussed whether the England shirt ‘weighs heavily’ on players due to pressure from fans.

But Keane, who was on punditry duty for the broadcaster alongside Ian Wright and Gary Neville, described that view as ‘arrogant’.

 

He added: “You talk about England not having won anything for 30, 40 years, that’s not on this group of players. Focus on winning the game of football, and history will take care of itself.

“When you talk about the weight of the jersey, I think there’s a bit of arrogance that comes with that.”

He went on to state: “The consequences of a mistake, that is part of top level sport. You have to deal with that and over the years maybe they haven’t done that well enough.”

Neville then brought up England’s ‘golden generation’ of 2002 to 2006, which failed to end the major tournament drought.

 

They reached three quarter-finals under Sven-Goran Eriksson, with England’s final appearance at Euro 2020 their furthest progression in a tournament since winning the aforementioned 1966.

Keane replied: “Please educate me on the ‘golden generation’.

“Having good players doesn’t make you a good team. If you have a solid good group of players, proper men, they’ll deal with the pressure. It’s part of the pressure of winning tournaments.”