Evening fieldmarshall. I think a lot of it starts and ends with the press, you only have to look at the coverage of the Arter / Walters piece, which O’Neill has addressed but his explanation of events doesn’t make for particularly good headlines. They created a caricature of Keane as crazy. At the same time I remember the S*n printing back pages with England players in tin hats before we play the Germans. The anti-Irish prejudice is out there in the general population and it colours how these characters are portrayed.
I don’t think you can bundle him in with Vinnie Jones and, to a lesser extent Barton because particularly Jones contributed little in terms of footballing skill. Still, Vinnie is painted as a hard man rather than someone who lacks control. Suarez is a fair comparison and if he spent more of his time in the Premier League I’m sure he would be an even bigger target than Keane was. And by the way, I was disgusted far more by his cheating handball in the 2010 World Cup than his silly biting, but his talent is undeniable.
I do think there’s an element of ‘he’s one of ours / isn’t one of ours’ that seems to be more powerful for a baddy than a goody - Maradona is a hero to Argentinians but a villain to the English. At the same time we all seem to admire Messi and Aguero.
When I look at Keane’s footballing career, I see a great footballer who occasionally took his aggression way too far. As a manager, I see a promotion at Sunderland and a poor but not catastrophic spell at Town. I see someone who was at the top of his profession as a player who is unable to convert that to management, primarily because of the skill and application of the players under his guard. But I don’t see this object of detestation that I read about on here or the crazy man that I read about in the press.
Whatever is the reason for this, whether it’s because of his nationality is a valid question to ask. Whatever you think I’ve implied about any individuals on this forum, I absolutely have not.
