Roy Keane has been blamed for Harry Maguire being booed by his own supporters on Tuesday.
Prior to England’s 3-0 win over Ivory Coast at Wembley, where Maguire played the full 90 minutes, the Manchester United skipper was booed by fans.
And Danny Mills, who played 19 times for England, believes Keane’s scathing criticism of Maguire has contributed to fans reacting negatively to the centre-back.
“Roy Keane says it, it’s gospel. I think when Roy Keane speaks we all sit up and listen. I think he’s got huge gravitas in the game, for what he’s achieved, for what he’s done and everything he’s gone through and achieved in the game.
‘You do have to listen but he can be particularly vicious at times.
‘No matter how he’s played, if Roy Keane says he’s had an absolute shocker and it’s disgraceful and he’s had a stinker we all go “well, he has done”, even without watching the game ourselves and going through it.
‘We listen because it’s Roy Keane and he’s spoken so without seeing it as ourselves we take his opinion as gospel. Maybe we shouldn’t do that.”
Former Manchester United skipper Keane has developed a reputation for not pulling any punches during his punditry and quite happily calling out players.
Maguire in particular has been on the receiving end of a fair few lashings after a disappointing period.
“I think Gareth has made it a bigger story than what it is,” Keane said on ITV.
“Every player gets booed. There’s going to be idiots at football matches. England fans have got a lot of idiots.
“And if they’re going to boo Harry Maguire, I think Gareth could have easily said that it’s no big deal. He actually played well, just focus on that.”
Maguire has not commented on the whistles as such and appears to be ignoring the criticism. On Twitter, he wrote, “Enjoyable week playing for my country”.