Roy Keane’s laid-back, relaxed new book includes some special praise for Sunderland’s pre-match changing-room mood-music: “The last song before the players went on to the pitch was Dancing Queen by Abba. They were going out to play a match, men versus men, testosterone levels were high. You’ve got to hit people at pace. Fuckin’ ‘Dancing Queen.’ It worried me.”
So what, then, is the best pro-testosterone dressing-room music? Pep Guardiola reckoned Coldplay’s Viva La Vida (“a sophisticated piece of grandiose orchestration”) gave Barcelona an edge. Manchester City tried Adele, half a dozen other clubs like Insomnia, and Rio Ferdinand had his own special Rio Ferdinand mix-tape at United, which purported to covered the whole musical spectrum: “There’s a bit of Kanye West on there, Lil Wayne and stuff like that, so that everyone in the changing room is happy.”
Any more suggestions for pre-match changing room music?