Former Ipswich Town striker Pablo Counago has labelled Roy Keane a "coward" after blasting the Manchester United legend's ability as a manager.

The Aston Villa assistant manager has hit the headlines this week with a string of revelations from his new book The Second Half, and claimed that the Spaniard was "dead lazy" in his memoirs.

However, Counago, who played for the Tractor Boys for two spells that spanned 10 years, slammed his ex-boss in an interview with the TWTD.co.uk

He said: "As he has said in his book, he wanted to hit me, but behind his appearance there's a coward. I just hope he can find happiness in his life as, in my opinion, being that miserable must be very mentally draining.

"It seems like he needs to criticise players, managers and directors to keep selling books as he is not able to do anything else in football. As I told him once, I think he is a complete mess as a football manager.

"The love and respect I feel for Ipswich and its fans is something he will never feel. I could say lots of awful things about him but I don't feel right speaking about him, I feel sorry for him. That's why, whatever he says about me, I don't take offence, even though he's not telling the truth about me."

Counago left Ipswich in 2011 and was part of the squad that played in the UEFA Cup during the 2001-2002 season.