Manchester United legend Roy Keane has claimed the tradition of touching the ‘This is Anfield’ sign at Liverpool is ‘silly’ and ‘pointless’.
Liverpool is a club known for its tradition with the famous sign an iconic symbol at Anfield, just as the players walk out onto the pitch.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s 2-1 FA Cup fifth round victory over Norwich, Ian Wright admitted that he would touch the sign on visits to Anfield on the opposing side.
Roy Keane questioned Ian Wright who admitted to touching the ‘This is Anfield’ sign at Liverpool
Virgil van Dijk touches the ‘This is Anfield’ sign which players under Jurgen Klopp were not allowed to touch before winning a trophy
When asked by ITV Sport presenter Mark Pougatch if he touched the sign, Wright said: ‘Course, but I didn’t touch it when going out with the guys. When you went out for the warm-up, you’d look around and touch it because it’s iconic, it’s unbelievable.
‘I didn’t want them (his team-mates) to see me because I didn’t want it to feel it was disrespectful, it wasn’t disrespectful, I just wanted to tough that sign.’
When Keane was asked if he touched the sign he responded: ‘Of course not. There’d be no point.
Keane said it was ‘silly’ and ‘childish’ for Wright to touch the sign as an opposing player
‘It’s okay, it’s a tradition for the English (Liverpool) players but not for the opposition players, I’m not sure why you touched it Wrighty.’
Keane then added ‘I think it’s silly, it’s childish,’ before Wright fired back: ‘It’s not childish, it’s an unbelievable thing to be able to do.’
The former United man then questioned: ‘What benefit did you get out of it?’
Wright responded: ‘I’ve touched it. I’m one of the few people to have touched it. I bet there’s a lot of fans that haven’t touched that.’
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp famously said in 2016 that he told his squad that they couldn’t touch the sign until they had won a trophy.
The Reds had a three-year wait before they could touch the sign after winning the Champions League in 2019 with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham.
The sign is a historic symbol of Liverpool which players walk under as they head to the pitch (Steven Gerrard pictured touching it on his last Liverpool appearance)
New signings are often introduced with pictures of touching the sign or walking underneath it
Liverpool are hoping to have one of the most successful seasons in the club’s history with a chance of winning four trophies.
They have already won one out of the four after their penalty shoot-out win over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final.
Klopp’s side are also still in the race for the Premier League title and are also in with a shot of winning the Champions League and FA Cup.