Keane hid from Liverpool legend Dalglish after Man United decision left him seething

Keane became British football's record transfer when he left Nottingham Forest for Manchester in 1993 for £3.75million, but things could have been very different.

The Irishman will have no regrets at all about choosing United, who hijacked his move to big spending Rovers, to created one of the most dominant teams of all time, but the initial weeks were a little turbulent.

Keane had even shaken hands on a deal with manager Dalglish - a legend at rivals Liverpool - only for Old Trafford boss Alex Ferguson to jump in ahead of him.

"Contract talks were done [with Blackburn] into the evening and agreed a deal, shook hands," he explained in an interview in 2017.

"It was a Friday night and they said 'Will you come back Monday when the office is back open' because obviously it was the end of season I said 'Yeah no problem'.

Keane then went back to Cork for a few days and got a call from Fergie on Sunday morning. "He said: 'Listen, would you come and meet me for talks tomorrow?'"

"I said 'Well I've shook hands with Blackburn'. He said 'Don't worry about that' and I flew to Manchester on the Monday, met [assistant coach] Brian Kidd, Alex Ferguson, had a game of snooker with him, the usual small talk, they told me how great I was and I believed them.

"But the problem was they still hadn't agreed a fee with Forest," he added.

"Blackburn were giving me £400,000 a year and United were offering me £300,000 and I was on £250,000 at Forest so I was thinking it's not a massive rise considering I was going to be a transfer record.

"So they stalled a little bit, dragged their heels, in the meantime Kenny Dalglish phoned up, and I'd kind of agreed to go to United even though I hadn't signed my deal yet, and he was fuming.

"He was effing and blinding 'you're a f***** disgrace' blah blah blah and I said, 'Listen I'm going on my holidays next week,' which I was, and I said 'I'm going to Cyprus next week with my mates and when I come back I'm going to sign for Man United'.

"He said 'I'm going to find you, I'm going to come to Ayia Napa and find you' so every bar in Ayia Napa I was looking over my shoulder waiting for Kenny Dalglish to walk in!"

It proved a wise move. Although Blackburn under Dalglish won the title in 1995, Keane ended up with seven winners medals, four FA Cups and was key member in the 1999 treble winning team.