Roy Keane doubles down on Declan Rice comments after questioning £105m transfer fee

Roy Keane has doubled down on his comments about despite praising the star’s against Real Madrid.

Rice put the Gunners in the driving seating in their Champions League quarter-final with a pair of superlative set-pieces before added a classy third to seal a 3-0 first leg win.

has taken several verbal shots at the former star in the past, claiming he doesn’t score enough. And while he was full of praise for Rice after the Real game, he insists he must continue to be a goal threat to be considered amongst the world’s elite midfielders.

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“Declan Rice has great technique in terms of striking the ball,” he said on the “Those two goals against Real Madrid, I was not that shocked that he did it. He has got that in his locker. The second goal was fantastic.

“If Rice can keep getting more goals, then he can be on a whole different level like some of the greater players out there. The goals add to it.”

Rice has previously been left bemused by pundits' criticism that he doesn't score enough. Asked by last year if he thought it was fair, he said: “No, not really. Because , [Graeme] Souness, [Jamie] Redknapp, people that talk about my goalscoring ability, if you looked at their goals, they didn’t score hundreds in their career.

“But they’re remembered for what they did as midfield players: Roy Keane breaking up play, being a hard-tackling midfielder, won loads of titles for United. The same with Souness.

“So I don’t know why when it comes to me it’s all about goals, because it’s never been my game. But since I’ve been scoring, no one has said anything!”

Keane has previously claimed Rice wasn’t worth the £105million the Gunners paid the Hammers. Speaking right after the transfer, the Irishman claimed: "They've obviously paid way too much for him. He's not worth over £100m."

Keane had already been on Rice’s case during his time at West Ham, saying: "For all the talk about him, a lot of good PR coming out of West Ham... I think he needs to do a lot more.”

But Keane was full of praise for Rice and Arsenal in general after the Real game, describing it as a “proper brilliant European performance”. The Gunners visit Brentford on Saturday, attempting to apply some pressure to runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool before the second leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.