Clough, who gave Keane his chance in English football when he brought the midfielder to Nottingham Forest for a mere �10,000 from Cobh Ramblers, has labelled the Irishman football's Al Capone.

"They say Al Capone did some good things in his life. Trouble was, he would go out and shoot people.

"He's entitled to be fresher than most - he has so much time off.

"He has had more than enough rest through suspensions alone. He has had more holidays than Judith Chalmers."

It is not the first time Clough has criticised United.

When the club turned their back on defending the FA Cup last season, preferring instead to take part in the World Club Championships in Brazil, Clough was blunt in his condemnation.

"Manchester United in Brazil? I hope they all get diarrhoea," he blasted.

But though he has made a career of being blunt, Clough is also as sharp as they come.

His quotes are the stuff of legends, etched into football's history books alongside match-winning goals and famous finals.

Few high-profile players and managers have escaped his catalogue of curses, while his views on the state of the modern game are equally hard-hitting.

Classic and curt, his forthright views earned him the nickname Old Big 'ead, one of the few opinions Clough would not argue with.

"On occasions I have been big headed," he admits.

"I think most people are when they get in the limelight. I call myself Big Head just to remind myself not to be."

But few players or managers ever won an argument with the legendary Clough.

"We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right," he once claimed after a post-mortem on a Forest match.

Other never-to-be-forgotten Clough classics include his attack on the high-ball tactics creeping into the English game in the eighties.

"If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there," Clough lashed.

Then there was his sharp-as-a-tack criticism of football club chairmen who react too quickly to giving their manager his cards.

"If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well," he claimed.

"At last England have appointed a manager who speaks English better than the players," said Clough, himself often linked with the England job.

"I'm sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job then I would want to run the show. They were shrewd, because that is exactly what I would have done," he admits.

Clough's comments provide a lengthy epitaph on the game, yet the man himself would rather none of the above made it onto his own tombstone.

"I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing," he insists.

"I contributed - I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me."