It bothers me not if he and Ferguson have a spat or a love-in. If it were not such a quiet 'newsweek' I wouldn't have commented. It still surprises me when supposedly adult supporters clearly cling to the belief that they all love each other. As for Keane himself. I've seen better and harder players than he was so his hard-man image just makes me smile. Apart from that I don't know the guy well enough to say if this book is in or out of character. I suppose it is up to manc supporters to comment if it is disrespectful or even truthful
As a Manc supporter i would say truthful? who knows, possibly. Disrespectful, probably, but that would assume the player had some respect for the club or his manager to start with. I have no idea what a "hard man" footballers is, is it a tough tackler, a player who kicks his opponants or a skillful player who gets the **** kicked out of him week after week and just carries on trying to beat his man.
To the vast majority of United supporters Keane was the epitome of a hard player. An enforcer who was more then prepared to practice the dark arts for the sake of the team. That you appear to want to re-write history as far as he is concerned is more than a little surprising.
Keane in his prime was a fantastic box to box midfield player. As he got older he became more of an enforcer in CM and he did that job superbly for United, as his medal collection will affirm. Comparing him to yard dogs like Tommy Smith is laughable
Think you've hit the nail right on the head tbh. I think Keane bought right into SAF's methods as long as he was seen as being above them - SAF could criticise and drop and sell anyone he wanted to keep the team going, as long as Keane wasn't one of those players. Classic case of someone who is all in favour of the system, until they end up on the wrong side of it and suddenly volte-face and claim they hated it all along. Particularly given that previous 'enforcers' like Tommy Smith, Nobby Stiles, Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles et al operated in an era when they could, and were expected to, kick the **** out of opposing players with the ref turning a blind eye. Keane and Vieira were players who came into their prime as the PL really kicked on in terms of its profile, and the old school kick 'em off the park tactics were pretty much outlawed, which meant they had to be outstanding all round players as well as able to tackle and win the ball.
It's a simple truth you one eyed kopite whopper Tommy 'benefits snide' Smith, was a yard dog, nothing more.
What a pathetic comment - from somebody who wasn't there to comment accurately upon the sides and players who played before the PL was even thought of! So there were supposed to be no "outstanding all round players" before Keane and Vieria - grow up. In the 50s perhaps two of the most classy sides were Wolves and Spurs. Both played open attacking football of an extremely high standard whilst still having an enforcer in their ranks and didn't get "kicked off the park". Whilst United had Stiles in their ranks in the 60s it didn't stop them having wonderful players like Best, Law and Charlton demonstrating their skills. It should also be noted that, at that time Smith was playing as an inside forward for Liverpool with Milne and Stevenson in midfield (neither of whom could be considered as cloggers). So before you decry the style of play before the emergence of the PL you have to put it into its rightful context and not merely assume that there was no wonderful play from truly class players who managed to display their skills despite the Harris's and Hunter's of this world - and managed to stay on the pitch! As for Keane, he actively courted his 'hard man' image as did Vierra and the young Gerrard.
Interesting how the thread has panned out I won't be reading either book, and couldn't really give a **** who said what, when, where and to whom.. I watched the 20 min interview of Keane that was enough for me.
And Roy Keane knew how to win on a football pitch and realised that the training sessions under Carlos were not up to standard. A manager is only as good as his players after all. But, as captain, how dare he speak up. It looks like he was kicked out because he challenged CQ and decided to play for Ireland again. As he has mentioned, there were no issues with the MUTV interview. Fergie was a bully and he had his nose put out of joint because Keano wouldn't back down against him when they collided.
Nope, like I said - no problem at all with Keane calling it like he sees it, and criticising people where he thinks it is appropriate to do so. Not sure it was best to do it in the middle of a season, and in what appeared to have been a very non constructive manner, but I think professional players have a duty to listen to criticism when they perform as badly as we did in that game. Just pointing out how hypocritical it is for him to turn around and say SAF is wrong to criticise him, when Keane has laid into just about everyone, team mate or not.
I didn't say anything about the style of play, or the existence of truly class players. I said it was easier for a player to be a specialised 'enforcer' before the growth of TV and the pressure to cut out bad tackles to keep a nice clean image. I don't think any Utd fans have ever considered Keane, or Vieira for that matter, to be such a specialist enforcer. Both of them were required to do a much more rounded job of which enforcement was just a part, and both of them did it outstandingly. I'm also amused how you started off by directly comparing Keane to previous enforcers and claiming he wasn't as 'hard' as them, and are now backtracking and saying I should be the one to consider the context of the play before the PL
Tommy Smith got one cap for England during a period when the national team was descending towards ****e.
