On Friday, Roy Keane was found not-guilty on a public order offence following some handbags with a taxi driver.
by Robert Higgins.
This one may have had all the drama of an episode of Nationwide, but we do remember these incidents where Keano properly lost his s**t fondly. May he never change.
Trouble in Boston
The year was 1991 and the Irish side were in Boston for a friendly with the USA. A teenage Roy Keane may have been somewhat wet behind the ears but he had no qualms about standing up to authority.
Following the match, the players were allowed a night out on the town with the caveat that they be at the bus the next morning at 7:30. The young Keane arrived 30 minutes late and was greeted by an unimpressed Jack Charlton. When questioned on his tardiness, the 19-year-old responded in what would soon be regarded as typical fashion.
“I didn’t ask you to wait, did I?’
Pure Roy.
“Prawn sandwich brigade”
“Away from home our fans are fantastic, I’d call them the hardcore fans. But at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch.”
This rant birthed one of Keane’s most loved quotables which has since go on to become part of the football lexicon and is cracked out whenever a team’s support is a tad on the underwhelming side. *Cough*Chelsea supporters*splutter*.
It was the Manchester United home fans who were originally on the receiving end of Keane’s ire, but the term has since taken a life of its own in popular culture and is now used to describe anyone who’s more interested in the catering than the football.
The Henry handball interview
It’s hard to put into words just how aggrieved the Irish public felt following Thierry Henry’s handball in the second leg of the playoff for the following year’s World Cup in South Africa. Everyone had an opinion on the matter. The government were demanding a replay while FAI were campaigning for Ireland’s inclusion as an unprecedented 33rd team in the competition.
Needless to say, the then manager at Ipswich had his own no nonsense take on matters, laying the blame squarely at the feet of the Irish players who, in his eyes, should ever have let Henry get his hand to the ball in the first place as well as the FAI suggesting that “what goes around comes around”.
The bad PR exercise
“I’m not one for holding grudges but this was a stupid mistake, a bad public relations exercise and something that should never have happened.”
It might not seem a whole lot now compared to the astronomical wages earned by many of the game’s current stars – Tom Cleverley’s wage slip was rumoured to be close to £70,000 – but back in 2000, the fact that Keane was earning £52,000 was a big deal. So big, in fact, that Manchester United felt it necessary to explain to their fans just where the cash was coming from.
When the club wrote a letter to the fans outlining that the recent hike in ticket prices was in order to facilitate the Corkman’s lucrative new contract, Keane felt he had been strung up by his employers and didn’t shy away from making his feelings known.
Letting Shearer win
Keane had many fierce rivals during his Manchester United career. He admitted in his autobiography the Second Half that he always kept a select list of players in “the back of my mind” – make of that what you will.
Granted this dubious honour, alongside the aforementioned Vieira and Haaland, were Rob Lee, David Batty and the then England captain Alan Shearer.
Of all Keane’s rivals, it seemed as though it was Shearer who had the greatest psychological edge over him and this was never more pronounced than when Manchester United and Newcastle United faced each other back in 2000. The Irish legend himself admitted in the first instalment of his autobiography that Shearer got the better of him on this particular exchange and it’s not hard to see why.
The MUTV interview
Keane is clearly a man who enjoys telling it like it is – as is evidenced by almost every sentence that has ever left his mouth – but he might wish that he had bit his tongue when delivering the interview that many view as the precursor to the end of his time at Old Trafford.
No video exists. Sadly.
In an exclusive interview for MUTV, Keane called out seven United players who he felt weren’t pulling their weight with Rio Ferdinand coming in for special criticism as the midfielder claimed that he thought himself a “superstar”.
Sir Alex Ferguson got wind of the interview and managed to stop it from ever going to air. The damage was done however. A couple of weeks later, Keane had his bags packed for Glasgow.
The Patrick Vieira tunnel incident
It was a rivalry for the ages. Two genuine midfield generals who sneered in the face of niceties and loved nothing more than a mean tackle.
They had many great duels as their respective clubs did battle for the Premier League title and even birthed a documentary ‘Best of Enemies’ that analysed the relationship between the two men, but the moment that sticks out in most people’s minds is the tunnel incident that took place at Highbury in 2005.
Keane took issue with Vieira’s behaviour towards Gary Neville and decided it was necessary to have a few words of his own with the Frenchman.
Stamping Southgate
There were more than a few raised eyebrows when it was announced Roy Keane and Gareth Southgate would be sitting next to one another as pundits on ITV. After all, the two men had more than a slight bit of history – Keane had twice stamped on Southgate in an FA Cup tie in 1995.
They ignored the elephant in the room for some time, but Southgate eventually alluded to it while analysing a particularly nasty challenge, remarking that he hadn’t seen such as bad tackle since Keane had attempted to “castrate” him – cue lots of nervous laughter from Adrian Chiles.
Leaving Saipan
“You were a crap player, you are a crap manager, the only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are manager of my country and you’re not even Irish, you English c**t. You can stick the World Cup up your b*****ks.”
On the eve of the 2002 World Cup, Keane let then Irish manager Mick McCarthy know in no uncertain terms what he thought of him and of the Irish set up. Keane packed his bags and the hopes of many fans and headed home to walk his dog.
Meanwhile, the saga was analysed to death in the media and still ripples to this day. I, Keano, the comedy musical inspired by the events has just completed another successful run some thirteen years after the dust had settled.
The Alf Inge Haaland incident
Through Keane would claim to have been misquoted by his ghost-writer Eamon Dunphy, it’s hard to read something like “Take that, you c**t” and come away with anything other than the idea that Keane had every intention to harm the Norwegian.
The vendetta had its origins some 3 years earlier when Keane seriously injured his knee while attempting to trip up Haaland. The then Leeds midfielder then protested to the referee that he was feigning injury – a decision he would go on to regret.
It was 2000 before Keane would exact his revenge in the most brutal of fashions. Haaland must have suspected that sooner or later he was going to be on the end of Keane’s own take-no-prisoners brand of vigilante justice. The tackle, if it can even be referred to as such, remains one of the most shocking seen in the Premier League era.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
