Roy Keane accuses Ellis Short of talking to him âlike something on the bottom of his shoeâ in his explosive new book âThe Second Halfâ. The Black Cats boss lifts the lid on the circumstances surrounding his Sunderland exit â and claims he should have been given more time by Short. He reveals that the disagreement was over Short questioning on him on whether he was managing Sunderland just one day a week â and says that the Black Cats owner had wanted him to move permanently to the North East with his family. Keane writes: âWhile I was driving, the owner rang me. âHe said âI hear youâre coming in one day a week. I said âOne day a week? Who were you talking to?â âWell thatâs what I heard.â âI went âItâs nonsense. How could I come in one day a week? Iâm on the way up now anyway. Weâve got a game on Saturdayâ. âHe said he was disappointed with the Bolton game. His tone wasnât good. ââYour location, where you live. You need to move up with your family. âI was in the third year of a three-year contract. The arrangement - the flat in Durham, my family in Manchester â had suited everyone until now. âHe said: âI think itâs important that you live in the area.â âIâm not sure if I said something like, âWhy donât you move up?â He lived in London. But I did say, âIâm not moving. Iâm in the last six or seven months of my contract anyway.â âIt might have been a different conversation if weâd been talking face-to-face. Then I might have said, âWell if I sign a new contract, Iâll move up. I can understand that.â âBut I said: âItâs not affected results previously.â âThe conversation didnât end well. It was a case of âNo-one tells me where I should liveâ and the accusation that I was only coming in one day a week hung there. âThere is always hearsay about managers at football clubs â there are always rumours. âHe comes in at seven in the morningâ - âHeâs sleeping with a girl in the officeâ - âHeâs a big drinkerâ. Theyâre always there - heâs a loner - âheâs too friendly with the playersâ. Iâd lived through my career with those rumours.â He says the end was brutal and unexpected. He writes: âIf Ellis Short actually thought that I was trying to run the team one a day a week he should have arranged to see me. I thought he was talking down to me, he spoke to me like I was something on the bottom of his shoe. I felt Iâd been doing reasonably well, so far. So I thought: âIâm not putting up with thisâ. âI drove home. I phoned Michael Kennedy in the car. ââListen Michael, Iâm not having all of this.â âMichael spoke to Niall (Quinn). Niall wasnât sure why the conversation between myself and Ellis Short had ended so badly. âApparently Ellis Short was surprised I was so upset. âAnd before I knew it â it was over.â Keane admits that he felt he was always on a hiding to nothing with Short, who had not been the owner when Keane had helped the team gain promotion. He writes: âA bad spell is always coming. But I think Iâd earned the right to get through that spell. Again â it was weeks, not months. âBut Ellis Short was new - and I wasnât his manager. He owed me nothing. He wasnât there when we were promoted. Iâd done nothing for him yet. I should have read that script a little bit better. âItâs probably true that the working relationship was never going to work, and not because he was some big, bad Texan and I was some grumpy Northsider from Cork. I donât like being spoken down to.â He also reveals that Steve Bruce had rung to ask if he should take the Black Cats job and Keane recommended the role.
Interesting read that. I did think at the time we moved swifter than you'd expect with Keane, but I have no doubt in retrospect that it was correct.
I'd have some sympathy if he was a modest none confrontational character, not read his books but from the sound of it, it's just two dossier's of pointing the finger at everyone for everything. I don't doubt for one second the stroppy **** blew it out of proportion like he blows everything else out of proportion. Take it from someone who has similar character flaws(not as bad as him like) He threw his toys out of the pram, and not for the first time.
I was there for the Bolton game. Utter ****e Fair play to him if the bit about Bruce was true, he was a good appointment at the time.
I wouldve put this on the Keanes book thread but some people that cant be bothered reading comments about Keane might have some interest in this.
I think after his departure both Keane and Ellis probably learnt something that they both could have handled it better.....live, learn and move on.....
Just his side of the story. Probably not quite how things went down. If you were short and had been told Keane was only there one day a week, you absolutely would investigate. Blaming him is the wrong person for Keane to blame.
1 Welcome to Hell “My first game [for Celtic] was Clyde, away, in the third round of the Scottish Cup. We were beaten 2-1. It was a nightmare. I wasn’t happy with my own game. I did OK, but OK wasn’t good enough. After the game – the disappointment. As I was taking my jersey off, I noticed the Nike tag was still on it. When I got on the bus John Hartson, a really good guy, was already sitting there and he was eating a packet of crisps – with a fizzy drink. I said to myself: ‘Welcome to Hell.’” 2 Who’s in charge? “It might seem strange but you find out about characters when you look to see who’s in charge of the music. A young lad might want to put on the latest sound; an older player might say: ‘I’m the senior player’ and put himself in charge. But I noticed none of the players [at Sunderland] were in charge of the music and this was a concern for me. A member of staff was in charge. I was looking at him thinking: ‘I hope someone nails him here.’ The last song before the players went on to the pitch was ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba. What really worried me was that none of the players – not one – said: ‘Get that **** off.’ They were going out to play a match, men versus men, testosterone levels were high. You’ve got to hit people at pace. ****in’ ‘Dancing Queen.’ It worried me. I didn’t have as many leaders as I thought.” 3 Blue is not the colour “Our first session [at Ipswich]was open to the fans. But nobody came. My first day – you’d have thought a couple of school kids would have been dragged in by a dad or grandad. The warmth wasn’t there. Then there was the blue training kit. I don’t like ****in’ blue. City were blue. Rangers were blue. My biggest rivals were blue. Is that childish? I couldn’t feel it – the chemistry. Me and the club. I get annoyed now, thinking that I should have been able to accept it: I was there to do a job.” 4 Lack of respect from Ferguson Keane reveals that when he took Sunderland to Manchester United for his first match back at Old Trafford as a manager there was no post-match drink with Sir Alex Ferguson. “Ferguson never turned up. I thought that was out of order. He called me a few days later to apologise. He said he’d had to rush off after the game and he’d waited a long time for me. I told him he should have a drink with me, like he would have with any other manager, and that he hadn’t shown me or my staff proper respect.” 1 Voicemail turnoff “I rang Mark Hughes. Robbie [Savage] wasn’t in the Blackburn team and I asked Mark if we could try to arrange a deal. Sparky said: ‘Yeah, yeah, he’s lost his way here but he could still do a job for you.’ Robbie’s legs were going a bit but I thought he might come up to us [at Sunderland], with his long hair, and give us a lift – the way Yorkie [Dwight Yorke] had, a big personality in the dressing room. Sparky gave me permission to give him a call. So I got Robbie’s mobile number and rang him. It went to his voicemail: ‘Hi, it’s Robbie – whazzup!’ like the Budweiser ad. I never called him back. I thought: ‘I can’t be ****ing signing that.’” 6 Bottom of Ellis Short’s shoe “The owner [Ellis Short] rang me. He said: ‘I hear you’re coming in only one day a week.’ I went: ‘It’s nonsense. He said he was disappointed with the Bolton result. His tone wasn’t good. ‘Your location – where you live. You need to move up with your family. I was in the third year of a three-year contract. The arrangement – the flat in Durham, family in Manchester – has suited everybody, until now. I’m not sure if I said something like: ‘Why don’t you move up?’ He lived in London. But I did say: ‘I’m not moving, I’m in the last six or seven months of my contract anyway.’ The conversation didn’t end well. It was a case of ‘no one should tell me where to live’ and the accusation that I was coming in only one day a week hung there. I thought he was talking to me; he spoke to me like I was something on the bottom of his shoe. And before I knew it was – it was over. It still saddens me. I still think I should be the manager of Sunderland. I really liked the club, and I liked the people. But Ellis Short was new – and I wasn’t his manager. It’s probably true that the relationship was never going to work, and not because he was some big, bad Texan and I was some grumpy Northsider from Cork. I don’t like being spoken down to.” 7 Hard on the Corkmen Damien Delaney came in and did OK. I was hard on him, probably because I knew him and he was from Cork. I went over the top. I was the same with another lad, Colin Healy. He was from Cork, too, and I told him he was moving his feet like a League of Ireland player. It was wrong. Colin was new at the club; I should have been bending over backwards for him. I made the point about Ellis Short talking to me like I was something on the bottom of his shoe. I think I spoke like that to some people at Ipswich.” 8 Walters is a wanted man “Jon Walters wanted to leave. We were four or five games into the season. He’d heard that Stoke were interested in him. I said: ‘Jon, I haven’t had a call from anybody.’ He came back a few days later. ‘They’re definitely after me.’ I said: ‘I’ve heard nothing. If there’s a bid, I’ll tell you. I’ve nothing to hide from you. You can ring the owner. I don’t do the business deals.’ ‘I’m not having this.’ There was effing and blinding, a bit of shoving. ‘Why don’t you ****ing believe me?’ He was sold to Stoke a week later. We’ve shook hands since.” 9 Couñago’s reply “Pablo Couñago was a player I didn’t particularly like or get on with. No club was interested in taking him – and I was happy to tell him that. I just found him dead lazy. He went: ‘How are we going to win anything with you as manager?’ I nearly physically attacked him – but I didn’t.” 10 A class apart “He [Paul Scholes] was a top, top player. But I still don’t fall for the boy-next-door image, or that he’s dead humble. He has more of an edge to him. Everyone thinks he lives in a council flat. The Class of ’92 – all good players, but their role at the club has become exaggerated. ‘Class of 92’ seems to have grown its own legs; it has become a brand. It’s as if they were a team away from the team, and they’re not shy of plugging into it. We all had the same aims; we all had the hunger.”
That's his version, so maybe one day we will get ES's. Like any of us RK has a selective memory in his telling of tales.
