Beyond his impassioned TV studio rants, which generate endless social media content, Roy Keane was once a generational player. An opposition’s nightmare. He wouldn’t spare you an inch of breathing room.
A master craftsman in midfield whose breed is increasingly rare in the game. No portrayal of the Irishman is complete without mentioning his divisive demeanor, occasionally landing him in trouble, but his contribution to the game far exceeds these talking points and puts him alongside the greatest to have ever graced the sport.
Humble beginnings
Born in the west of Ireland, Roy Keane didn’t grow up in luxury, so he wasn’t given many of the advantages which financial privilege can bring. He had to fight for success.
Well, a young Roy did just that, learning to box before finding his true calling in soccer – it would appear that he was able to transfer that fighting spirit onto the field.
Keane was rejected by the Irish schoolboys’ setup because of his size, perhaps fuelling his motivation further. In 1989, Keane joined Cobh Ramblers, a nearby semi-professional outfit.
He clearly impressed in his brief stint there as Brian Clough, two-time European Cup-winning manager, saw enough in the youngster to bring him over to England to play for Nottingham Forest.
Roy’s debut at Forest was against the mighty Liverpool. The opposition players couldn’t believe the audacity of this kid hurling curses at them. Roy enjoyed a successful stint at the East Midlands club and retrospectively cited Clough as the finest manager he had ever played for.
However, a combination of a breakdown in contract negotiations and Forest’s untimely relegation meant that Keane was sold, but this wasn’t without its drama. In 1993, Roy had verbally agreed to join Blackburn Rovers, but the paperwork hadn’t been prepared properly one Friday, so it had been agreed that Keane would sign the contract on Monday.
Within that time, Sir Alex Ferguson called up Roy to tempt him into a move to Manchester United instead, and the rest, as they say, is history. This U-turn infuriated Rovers’ boss Kenny Dalglish to the point of threatening the midfielder.
This was an astonishing administrative oversight that ultimately altered the course of English soccer history.
Icon status
If you need any convincing of Roy Keane’s abilities, then look no further than the 1999 Champions League semi-final second leg at Juventus. This goes down as one of the all-time best midfield performances.
Keane received an early yellow card meaning he’d miss the final were United to make it, yet his showing was one of a man desperate to make the final for himself. In fact, Sir Alex Ferguson said that he’d never witnessed such selflessness before on the pitch.
Keane grabbed his team by the scruff of the neck when they were two goals down and dug them out of a very deep hole. He gorgeously glanced in Beckham’s corner to halve the deficit. He instilled belief into a side that looked beaten only a few minutes prior.
Captain Keane re-energized his side to turn the nightmare start around and send Manchester United on their way to winning their second European Cup.
The Saipan fiasco
Before a ball was kicked at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Roy Keane was sent home from the Republic of Ireland squad because of a public fallout with manager Mick McCarthy.
Keane was the beating heart of the Irish team in qualification – his performance at home to the Netherlands was particularly talismanic. This was a devastating loss for Ireland, who don’t routinely qualify for tournaments. How did it come to this?
Based on Roy’s account, at least, the arrangements set up by the Football Association of Ireland were farcical. Among other failures, he deemed the wretched state of the pitch they were to train on and the fact that no training kits or balls had been brought over as simply unacceptable.
The FAI saw this Saipan stopover as a relaxing break, but Keane felt they needed to prepare properly on the eve of a World Cup. You can understand his displeasure at the reportedly amateur planning of the FAI.
Yet, when Keane detailed the camp conditions to two Irish reporters shortly after arriving in Saipan, he must’ve known there’d be a backlash.
McCarthy was livid and confronted Roy at a team meeting. This public criticism was a step too far for Roy, leading to a reported altercation and irreversible damage. Roy Keane received a one-way ticket back west, and his World Cup was over before it had begun.
Globally, the press was in a frenzy. Ireland’s captain and one of the world’s best players at the time was sent home. The soccer world became so eager to point the finger one way or the other that it was almost forgotten that games were approaching for the remaining players.
Ireland performed valiantly in the Far East that summer. Bowing out on penalties to Spain was no embarrassment. But 20 years on, a country is left to agonize over what could have been.
A foe like no other
Back to club matters, Roy Keane’s battles with Patrick Vieira were so rabidly anticipated and rarely disappointing. It doesn’t matter what you were doing; people dropped everything to catch this action.
A televised verbal bust-up between the players, who were due to walk out of the Highbury tunnel momentarily, is still replayed as nostalgic folklore. Vieira was accused of bullying Gary Neville, which Roy found unacceptable, so he took matters into his own hands.
Referee Graham Poll, who surely didn’t expect his work to begin so soon, had to physically separate the pair as they hurled abuse at one another.
Describing these encounters as combative would be doing them a disservice. Keane made sure Vieira knew he was in for a rough time whenever they met, sure, but the crunching tackles and relentless hassling were only part of it.
Roy Keane displayed sumptuously incisive passing, tempo-setting that a conductor would be proud of, and the fast footwork we’ve come to expect from ‘flair’ players.
Roy produced a scintillating technical performance in August 1999 against the Gunners, scoring twice to snatch three points and set a marker for the season ahead. Although, he put the composure to one side for a moment to lash out at Vieira, a moment which would surely have seen him sent off in the VAR age.
Keane’s skill was underrated, or at least not spoken about as often as his misconducts. He had the ability to dictate games as he wished; make no mistake about it.
A complicated relationship
Sir Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane won an abundance of trophies together at Manchester United over a 12-year span. They dominated English soccer for a long time. However, after all that success, the pair’s relationship fell apart and has supposedly not been rectified to this day.
While Roy was granted a testimonial after his United tenure, the relationship soon went publicly south. Bitter exchanges via autobiographies have been published for the world to see.
In an interview long after retiring, the Irishman claimed that Ferguson was disloyal. It’s a remarkable accusation considering the longevity of the great manager at the club and that of many who played under him.
Despite an ostensibly fractured relationship towards the end, there was underlying respect between the two. Ferguson stated how his opinion of Roy rose to previously unthinkable levels and proclaimed that it was a privilege to manage a player of his caliber after the ’99 semi-final in Turin.
Ferguson also credits Keane with being a huge part of the reason that standards rarely, if ever, dropped in the United dressing room. Having a captain with this mindset is priceless. It makes the job as a manager much easier.
Perhaps the truth is that the personalities clashed because of how similar they are. The very best was expected and demanded from both of them; there was no room for compromise. To this admiring spectator, at least, they were ruthless in their conduct and demeanor, but should something light the fuse, the explosion would be catastrophic.
Holding grudges
The Alfie Haaland situation was a regrettable one. Well, to most of us, it would be, at least.
It was something Roy felt was justified, in retaliation for an incident years prior when Haaland accused Keane of faking an injury. His injury was real, and Roy certainly wouldn’t forget Haaland berating him as he was in agony on the floor.
Towards the end of a 2001 Manchester derby, Roy Keane lunged into a horrific challenge on Alfie Haaland, leaving the Manchester City player needing medical attention. You can see Roy giving the stricken defender a piece of his mind while he’s down, something he’d claim is poetic justice, I’m sure.
A year later, Keane explained in his autobiography that Haaland had it coming. Roy maintains that he meant to hurt Haaland, not injure him (judge the distinction for yourself). For this, he was heavily fined by the FA and received a long suspension.
It’s a commonly spread myth that Haaland’s career ended after Keane’s premeditated tackle (I’m using that word loosely). In fact, Haaland finished that very game and featured in two other games after that. It was the other knee that reportedly caused him to retire early.
Regardless, this series of unsavory incidents taints the reputation of Roy Keane.
Keano’s lasting legacy
Roy was a player whose efficiency with the ball, along with his famed tenacity, was sought by many but replicated by few.
Although he had so much more to offer than pure aggression, it’s difficult to imagine a player as ferocious as Keane operating at top-level soccer today. Soccer has changed, but how the purists wish there were more Roy Keanes around.
Soccer coaches will be studying Keane’s highlight reel for years to come, marveling at his expert positional awareness and his predatory anticipation, hoping they can somehow develop these capabilities in young players to mold the next Roy Keane.
However, the truth is that, for better or worse, there’s only one Keano.