Dirty or Keane? (Roy Keane)

Member Name: mattydalton

Product:	Roy Keane
Date:	03/09/02 (396 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hunger for success, Drive, Immense presence

Disadvantages: Can be reckless, Plays for MUFC, Not English

Welcome to my humble opinion!! Before you begin, I feel I must remind you I'm a Liverpool fan through and through, but this isn't going to be a typical scouse opinion slagging the great man off, I'm going to be objective believe it or not!

Roy Maurice Keane was born in Cork on the 10th October 1971, which makes him 30 for all of those people out there who can't add up. I know nothing about his childhood and, to be completely honest, couldn't be bothered to find anything out, so I will go straight onto his football career. He was originally thought too small to play professional football and so set upon improving his physique by getting himself a job lugging beer barrels around. It is this attitude which has seen Roy develop into the legend that he has now become. Roy started his footballing life with the Irish giants, Cobh Ramblers, after failing to earn an apprenticeship with any of our beloved English clubs, despite writing to Nottingham Forest, ironically enough. At the tender age of 18 however, Brian Clough spotted his ability to dominate the midfield through reckless challenges and intimidation, aswell as his great array of footballing qualities, and lured him to England with a coveted contract offer from, you guessed it, Nottingham Forest. Back then, don't forget, Nottingham Forest were a "big" club. Cloughie, a managerial mastermind, so they tell me, had taken Forest to the dizzy heights of Europe. How ironic that his last game in charge saw the team relegated. For now though, back to Keano.

After signing for the Nottingham giants, Roy Keane had the opportunity to display his range of abilities on the big stage, and also earn more than £60 a week on a YTS. He switched from the giant confrontations of Cobh Ramblers and Cork City, to a league debut against the English minnows, Liverpool FC(sarcasm if you didn't notice). What a way to start his career in England. At the time, Liverpool were the reigning cha
mpions, something we have yet to see again, so Roy couldn't have started with a much sterner test. Sadly for Roy, but happily for me, Liverpool won 2-0 that day. However, Keane's performances were beginning to earn him a lot of respect from footballing legends. Roy later went on to feature in the 1991 F.A. Cup Final at the end of his first full season for Forest. This time he had to be content with a runners-up medal. The following season, Roy was starting to develop into a truly promising player. He drove his team of second-rate over-achievers to the League Cup Final, only to be beaten by his future club, Manchester United. With this, Roy was starting to get frustrated, but Cloughie was the mastermind behind his development so far, thus he stuck with what he knew and continued to learn. The following season, Forest were relegated, after being beaten on the final day 2-1. Ironically, it was Cloughie's last game in charge, and his son Nigel, who went on to be a LFC legend(hehehe), scored the goal. Keane could not be blamed in any way for his team's shortcomings and his frustration turned into restlessness. With Brian Clough retired, Roy had no reason to stay at Forest, and certainly didn't want to play second class football.

Keane's vast array of abilities, as mentioned above, had already attracted the eye of many envious managers. Manchester United emerged as the successors to his signatures, amid a flurry of interest during the summer of 1993, and clinched a £3.75m deal, which was a then club and national record. Roy is a well-known Spurs fan, but turned down a transfer to them, because he "wouldn't have much of a family left" if he had turned down MUFC, the team his entire family supported. He made his debut for Manchester United against Norwich, and quickly settled into the Old Trafford set-up. During his years at the Theatre of Dreams, Keane has displayed time and again his unmatchable ball-winning skills, his unsur
passable desire, and an engine that Google looks upon enviously. I read somewhere, don't ask me where, that Roy Keane covers eight miles per game, a tremendous amount in ninety minutes, when you think about the amount of time you would be standing, waiting for throw-ins, goal kicks, etc.. It is Keane's attitude on the pitch that has taken Manchester United back to the top of world football, if you ask me. Personally, I would consider him to be a legend already.

Roy inherited the club captaincy from Eric Cantona when the controversial Frenchman retired, and how fitting that his replacement has gone on to become just as controversial. Cantona and Keane could not be more different players, yet their ability to inspire others saw them bring their club so much success. Roy has gone on in recent years to mature as a player and, although he still has his famous fiery temper, has become more calculated in his football. Admittedly, his dirty side has become more calculated, but his football brain has improved too. He is still prepared to cover the ground, but now tends not to cover the ground he doesn't need to, conserving his legs for the work that are so important to his game. In the 1999-00 season, Keane drove his side to an historical treble. His part in this season was recognised with not one, but two footballing awards in the form of the PFA and the Football Writers' Player of the Year Awards.

Over the past couple of years, the Red Devils seem to have lost their desire, with a lot of the players seeming somewhat complacent about their £30,000 a week pay packets, a view which Keane has been happy to re-iterate. A man who wears his heart on his sleeve, he despises half-heartedness. His passion for the game, and indeed winning, sometimes become too much for him, thus he lashes out. This takes many forms including the verbal method mentioned above. Who can forget the prawn sandwich outburst? But he was right. Fundamentally most of the t
hings he complains about are right. I feel he has been wrongly labelled a 'whinger', when in fact he stands up for the rights of the fellow footballer and common football fan. His outbursts against Mick McCarthy were fundamentally him standing up for his team-mates. How ironic he be called a whinger when complaining about having to travel in the economy class to away matches for Eire, yet the Irish FA officials travelled first-class. Surely the players should get the red carpet treatment, for they are the ones doing all the work, after all. His obvious unhappiness at the state of affairs in the Irish camp, saw him and McCarthy come to verbal blows, resulting in Keane being sent home from the World Cup 2002. Keane has since told us he will never play for Ireland again while McCarthy is at the helm and McCarthy has told us he will never pick him anyway. What a fine example of two stubborn people. Anyway, with Ireland doing well, and both mens pig-headedness, surely that signals the end of Keane's international career, in which he earned 58 caps, and scored 9 goals along the way in the eleven years since his debut at Lansdowne Road against Chile, May 1991, under Jack Charlton.

The recent serialisation of Keane's autobioghraphy in an unnamed newspaper has sparked massive controversy over the summer. Personally, I have not actually managed to read any of it, so I can't really comment on what is claimed to have been said. I have heard of how he set out to hurt Alf Inge Haaland, and how he has slagged off his team-mates and so on. Has everybody forgotten the days of Tommy Smith, Norman Hunter and Graham Souness? Even the greats like Pele had to foul their way through games to escape injury. Injuring a player can be seen as a way of gaining an advantage over another team. In the 70s it was part and parcel of the game, but the recent commercialism of the sport and heightening transfer fees has seen clubs harass the authorities to clamp down on th
e tough side of the 'beautiful game'. Losing a player to injury is expensive these days. I, however, am in support of players like Roy Keane who, to me, is one of the few remaining true footballers in the game today. His passion on the pitch is clear to all. OK, he might be prone to the odd reckless challenge, but who isn't? We all lose it now and then, he's only human. It is his great passion that causes these reckless moments, but he wouldn't be the player he is without it. Roy admits his inability to control his anger sometimes, but at least he can admit to it. When was the last time you saw Steve McManaman admit he couldn't be bothered in a particular match because he was getting £40k anyway? Keane is no more criminal than any of the under-achievers in the game today, in fact I would consider him a true professional. Believe it or not, he has only received 10 red cards in his spell with Manchester United, about one per season. Strangely enough, he received 4 of these from David Elleray. Maybe David doesn't like him, I'll let you decide that one.

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