As a huge Mancehster United and Roy Keane fan I am little upset. Keane was one of the best players I have ever seen. I may be biased because I am Irish but some of his performances for both the boys in green and the red devils were world class. I specifically recall his bullying Edgar Davids and Zidane off the ball when United beat Juventus 3-2 in the Champions league in '99. Or when Holland put Seedorf on the pitch just to mark Keane in 2000 in Holland!
Seems odd that he’s walking away from a huge testimonial pay-day and no-one else will pay him the kind of salary that United will.
We’re clearly missing the full story here. Any thoughts?
Well the reports seem to say it comes down to a massive row with Fergie and to be honest I get the feeling that the pressure is starting to get to the ruddy faced blowhard. I think he has had a hard time adapting his club from the brilliant teams of the 90’s that managed to populate it’s ranks with it’s own youngsters (think Beckham, Scholes, Giggs) and justthe proper signings (Keane, Gazzw, etc.) at a time when the money was really starting to ruel the fooballing world. Now I think the young players just aren’t the quality and there it is just too hard to patchup the holes with transfers.
OK, I went a bit off topic there. But I winder if Fergie will be going soon, too.
I think that is an excellent point. Fergie might be gone this summer. He seems to have lost his way a little.
Keane is still an excellent player. I was back in Dublin for the Ireland-France match and in a midfield of Zidane, Viera and Makalele, Keane was by far the best player. Even took the ball off of Zidane and then blowing past Viera before Duff got in his way.
Greatest midfielder to ever play for Manchester United. I would put him over Charlton though below Best.
I feel the opposite to you Lochdale regarding Keane, I have less respect for him than any other sportsman I can think of so I am unable to comment on him objectively. I think his last rant on MUTV were the words of a man who has basically stopped giving a fuck. For the club captain to be explicitly criticising younger players in the way he did from the comfort of the sidelines is unforgiveable, and he had to have expected a severe reaction from the club. If this is indeed the reason for Fergie telling him to get on his bike then I give the mean old bastard a lot of credit for taking a principled stand on what was the epitome of gutlessness from Keane. I guess it was an easy decision for them to make in any case as he is clearly past it at the top level.
I’m not going to argue with you on the relative merits or demerits of Keane’s actions. I’m still sore over Saipan.
I will, however, take umbrage with the notion that he is over the hill. He’s certainly not the player he was but over the hill? I don’t think so. He bossed Viera around twice in the last 6 months. Handled Gerrard with ease (as he has always done) and was clearly the better player than Zidane in Dublin. He’s still has a lot to offer and he’s still a near-top class player.
I agree he’s got quality games left in him and is still capable of pulling out a commanding performance, but lets face it, you can only judge whether a player is or is not past it when he is playing. And Roy doesn’t seem to play much these days, being as injury-prone as everyone else is at his age.
He’ll be in demand in the EPL or the SPL now that he’s left ManU, but I’d be really surprised to see him put even one season of games together for another club without significant injury lay-offs.
Sky News just said that as part of the leaving deal a testimonial will be played. So nice big payday for Roy. Then again he has been on something like £60k a week for a while now so he’s not exactly short of a few bob.