Man Utd icons Roy Keane and Paul Scholes disagree on Sir Alex Ferguson’s ‘It’s Tottenham’ speech
Ferguson’s famous speech quickly became part of Premier League history but it left two Man Utd stars in disagreement
Abbie Meehan Sports Writer U-35s
05:30, 08 Nov 2025
Scholes and Keane disagree over one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most memorable team talks(Image: Stick to Football)
Manchester United legends Roy Keane and Paul Scholes have disagreed on whether Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous ‘It’s Tottenham’ speech was necessary. As the two Premier League giants prepare to face each other on Saturday afternoon, fans may well be reminded of the speech Ferguson made during the fixture in 2001.
Both Keane and Scholes played in the iconic match where the Red Devils found themselves 3-0 down at halftime to Spurs in a shocking turn of events. When Ferguson came into the dressing room, he reportedly said simply: “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”
United came back in the second-half and won 5-3 so the short but sweet team talk definitely worked. However, Scholes didn’t feel like it was fair for the legendary manager to discredit their opponents the way he did.
Speaking before Spurs’ 1-0 win over United in the Europa League final in May, the former midfielder told TNT Sports: “I think it’s a bit derogatory to speak about such a great football club like that.
“We knew that most of the time we had the beating of Tottenham. We were always confident against them. I know there’s a lot said of, ‘It’s only Tottenham’ and that should be enough to win a game. But it isn’t. You’re playing against a very good team of footballers.
“They’ve had the upper hand against United, we’ve lost the last three. It’s not quite ‘just Tottenham’ any more.”
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Scholes was right not to underestimate Spurs that night as United watched on as Ange Postecoglou’s side lift their first European troph since 1984. However, not everyone felt that Ferguson’s words weren’t the right fit for Spurs back in 2001.
Former club captain Keane was full of praise for Ferguson’s words at the time, claiming the Scot knew exactly what the team needed to hear. Speaking at an event for his book, The Second Half, he said: “I played under good managers, bad managers.
“The top managers get a feel for the group, they know what you need. Whatever Alex Ferguson’s strengths and weaknesses, that was by far his biggest strength.”
The game went from 3-0 to 5-3 in United’s favour(Image: Shaun Botterill/ALLSPORT)
Highlighting the famous speech, Keane added: “It was Tottenham at home. I thought, ‘please don’t go on about Tottenham, we all know what Tottenham is about, they are nice and tidy but we’ll f****** do them’.
“He came in and said: ‘Lads, it’s Tottenham.’ And that was it. Brilliant. It could have been a European semi-final, it could have been Leeds away, it could have been a home League Cup tie – Alex Ferguson always had a feel of the group.”
While both ex-Premier League stars disagreed over Ferguson’s iconic speech, they’ll both be rooting for United to get a priceless away win against Spurs this weekend.
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