Roy Keane is a very mild-mannered man
The former Manchester United captain’s playing career was notable for the fact that Keane was a cool and measured customer who avoided conflict at every turn, for fear of hurting people’s feelings or appearing to be seen as rash.
As a poignant, relaxed man who would rather die than hurt the feelings of his acquaintances, Keane would never do something like giving an interview to his club’s in-house television station criticising his teammates viciously.
Nor would Keane storm out of his country’s first World Cup camp in eight years after telling his manager to “shove it up your bollocks”.
It is clear, it is indisputable, Roy Keane is not a man to upset people, nor is he someone to get upset by others, and as such it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the current predicament at Manchester United.
To those of you who either don’t watch football or simply avoid the day-to-day Home And Away style drama of football, Manchester United are bad at the moment. Not really bad, not relegation bad, but mid-table bad and bad enough to cause manager Jose Mourinho to fall out with star midfielder Paul Pogba.
Keane’s former teammate Paul Scholes has already had his say on the situation, claiming that Jose Mourinho is “embarrassing” the club, but Keane has made the players the focus of his own criticism.
“You talk about footballers and managers, not every player is going to get on with their manager and not every manager is going to like every player,” said the 47-year-old to Notts TV.
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“But what you do as a footballer, and I’ve had one or two disagreements, when you cross that line you play for your team.
“I don’t care what fallout you’ve had with your manager, I don’t care if you’ve been at each other’s throats. That is part of the industry. People do fall out. Unfortunately when you’re Man United – one of the biggest clubs in the world – things will get exaggerated.
“And if you’re a footballer for Manchester United, you put that jersey on, you walk out and you don’t give 100 per cent because you might be upset with somebody then good luck to Mourinho with this stuff.”
Keane then added: “I’m not talking about Pogba. I’m talking about players in general. Players who get upset with a manager or a coaching staff and think ‘I’m not going to train properly because somebody upset me’. There’s a lot of cry babies out there.
“When you walk out on that pitch you’re playing for your pride, you’re playing for your family, you’re playing for your city, whatever it might be. Don’t get that worried about what the manager’s said about you, or the coaching staff, you get out there and play.
“You can follow it up after the match but when the game’s going on liven up. Play with pride, play with energy, play with spirit.
“Hopefully play with a bit of skill. But on your bad days you roll your sleeves up and you fight for that jersey.
“Don’t get distracted by the balloons out there.”
For the purposes of clarity, it is worth noting that Roy Keane was himself involved in an alleged altercation with Ireland international Harry Arter last month, one which led to the Bournemouth midfielder dropping out of his country’s squad.
Ireland manager Martin O’Neill appeared to confirm that rumours of the spat were accurate, but far be it from us to be cynical enough to suggest this has in anyway affected Keane’s thought on the subject of players standing up for themselves.
