With an insatiable appetite for success and an aversion to failure bordering on the obsessive, Roy Keane cut a dominant figure in central midfield for Manchester United during the most successful period in the club's history.
The skipper was a hard, but fair, player.
Perhaps the last true box-to-box midfielder to grace England's top flight, he possessed an ability to strike fear into opponents unlike any other and played with a passion and urgency that inspired team-mates around him to raise their performance levels.
The Irishman's story is a trophy-laden journey of misadventure, beginning at Cobh Ramblers in his native Cork and finishing with boyhood heroes Celtic. Keane's was a career that always courted controversy as well as championship medals.
After being handed his big break in England at Nottingham Forest by the legendary Brian Clough, Keane impressed Sir Alex Ferguson enough for the Manchester United boss to snap him up for £3.7 million in 1993 for a then British transfer record. Ferguson viewed the Irishman as the ideal long-term replacement for Bryan Robson and Keane quickly formed an influential midfield partnership with Paul Ince, before spending almost ten years providing the perfect defensive foil for the attacking flair of Paul Scholes.
Keane was a tough tackler and an exceptional ball winner, rarely leaving an opponent unscathed from a 50-50 challenge. But aside from his ankle-biting reputation, he was also a master of possession. In a United side renowned for passing its way through the opposition, most attacks started with the ball at the feet of the Irishman, conducting the tempo and dictating the rhythm of all United's play.
Aggression and determination were two characteristics Keane possessed in abundance and his 88 yellow cards and 13 dismissals for United tell the story of a man whose passion often boiled over into rage. He had confrontations with most of the Premier League's glitterati, most notably Alan Shearer and Patrick Vieira, and a 2001 clash with Alf-Inge Haaland provided perhaps the biggest controversy of his career.
After four years of waiting, he took his revenge on Haaland
In 1997, a tackle from Haaland had ruptured Keane's cruciate ligament, though at the time the Norwegian accused him of overplaying the injury. Fast forward four years and Keane was out for revenge. In the 2001 Manchester derby the Irishman flew in with a reckless challenge over the top of Haaland's knee, leaving the Norwegian with an injury that he claims eventually caused his retirement.
Keane was shown a straight red but a year later it was revealed in his autobiography that he had deliberately set out to injure Haaland in an act of revenge. For what was essentially pre-meditated assault and for bringing the game into disrepute, Keane was banned for five games and fined £150,000.
Keane also grabbed the headlines for the wrong reasons when, at a training camp with Ireland for the 2002 World Cup, he walked out after a blazing row with Mick McCarthy regarding the lack of organisation at the camp. Keane was branded a "coward" for walking away, but this was another demonstration of the single mindedness of a passionate individual trying to ensure his team had the best possible chance of success.
The Irishman's finest performance in the red of United came on a balmy night in Turin in 1999. At 2-0 down inside ten minutes of the Champions League semi-final second leg against Juventus, it appeared another season of European underachievement awaited United. Step forward Roy Maurice Keane.
Despite receiving a booking that ensured he would be absent from an unlikely final berth, the captain rolled up his sleeves and produced a stirring performance that Sir Alex Ferguson later described as the "most emphatic display of selflessness" he had seen on a football pitch. Keane scored the opening goal and covered every blade of grass as United fought back to win 3-2 and book a place in the Champions League final.
Keane watched the dramatic 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich in the Nou Camp final from the stands, celebrating with his team-mates. But he later revealed: "Although I was putting a brave face on it, this was just about the worst experience I'd had in football."
Keane's ambition did not end with the 1999 Treble victory, as he led United to three consecutive Premier League titles, and scooped his greatest individual accolade, the PFA Player of the Year award for the 1999-00 season,
Keane was part of a rebuilding of United after Arsenal and Chelsea beat them to the Premier League crown in successive seasons, but there was always an underlying feeling that he did not have the same belief in his team-mates. After injury and outspoken comments saw him fall out of favour with Sir Alex Ferguson, Keane joined boyhood heroes Celtic; playing out a successful final season in which he lifted the Scottish Premier League before hanging up his boots for the final time in 2006.
A move into management seemed a natural step for Keane with Ferguson and pundits alike predicting more success; surely his ability to inspire and lift his team-mates and unrelenting desire to win were qualities that would naturally transfer from the pitch to the dugout?
Certainly, Keane's first foray into management in 2006 with Sunderland suggested that he could prove himself at an elite level. He transformed the Wearsiders from bottom-of-the-Championship relegation fodder to Premier League competitors in just ten months.
A comfortable but unspectacular first season in the top flight followed, however Keane was given money to spend and most believed Sunderland could finish respectably once more. But he failed to see eye-to-eye with Sunderland's new owners and resigned to the similar cries of "quitter" that had resounded around him after walking out on McCarthy in 2002.
Keane bowed out of football for nine months, assessing his options before stepping back into Championship management with Ipswich Town. He has thus far failed to recreate the immediate success he enjoyed at the Stadium of Light, with his man-management skills increasingly called into question.
But whatever the Irishman's future in management holds, he can look back on a glittering playing career. Though he won few friends for his aggression and fiery temperament, you get the feeling that with a trophy cabinet bulging with championship medals and personal accolades, Keano's not too bothered what they think.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...england&cc=4716
Sep 25 2009, 01:26 PM
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