Martin O'Neill urges Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson to kiss and make up

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill has urged assistant Roy Keane to end his long-running feud with former Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson.

During their 12 years together at United, eight of which Keane spent a captain, the pair helped bring seven English Premier League titles, one Champions League trophy and four FA Cups to Old Trafford.

But the relationship between the duo became increasingly bitter since Keane left United for Scottish giants Celtic after launching a withering attack on some of his team-mates during an interview with United’s in-house television channel, MUTV, that was never broadcast, in November 2005.

Since then both Ferguson and Keane have criticised one another in their respective autobiographies, but O’Neill said now was the right time for them to bury the hatchet.

“Manchester United have been incredibly successful and these men were two fundamental factors in this,” said O’Neill, quoted by Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Monday.

“The manager’s obviously very important, having been able to oversee success for such a considerable amount of time,” added O’Neill, who like Keane played under celebrated manager Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest.