Keano’s rant: more details emerge
Keane finally ready for Arter reconciliation
ROY KEANE is prepared to apologise to Harry Arter as the fallout to the Republic of Ireland assistant manager’s foulmouthed rant at the Cardiff City midfielder accelerated.
Ireland manager Martin O’Neill revealed last night that ‘Roy is up’ for ‘a reconciliation’ with Arter, who withdrew from the squad for the games against Wales last Thursday and Poland here tonight. Keane’s contrition followed the leaking of an audio on Whatsapp in which defender Stephen Ward gave his version of the summer bust-ups between Keane, Harry Arter and Jon Walters.
According to Ward, Keane and Walters had to be dragged apart after a row at training in Dublin before the France friendly. Keane then turned his sights on Arter on the return from Paris. Ward, who missed the summer games, claimed Keane laid into Arter with a series of expletives, adding ‘you don’t even care, you don’t want to train’.
Keane phoned Ward yesterday to express his fury at the claims while O’Neill stood firmly by his No2, who was insisting his version of the rows with players differed to that suggested by Ward.
Asked whether the leak may have any implication for Ward’s Ireland career, O’Neill replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
MARTIN O’NEILL is calling it ‘an absolute sideshow’ but you suspect Stephen Ward, Roy Keane and every Tom, Dick, and Harry Arter have other words to describe it.
This was an unprecedented day in the turbulent history of the Republic of Ireland with Roy Maurice Keane, not for the first time, in the eye of the storm.
Where to start? With Ward, for it was the 50-cap left-back who uncorked the fizz with an audio on the WhatsApp messaging service where he gave his version of the blazing bust-ups between Keane, Jon Walters and Harry Arter during the summer.
The language used by Ward was coarse and the full transcript can be seen on these pages. It is hard to look away.
Ward never expected his insider’s exclusive to get past his pals but it did and has left him feeling ‘betrayed’, according to O’Neill.
As for Keane, when he heard the audio, he picked up the phone from Wroclaw and gave the veteran defender a blast with both barrels.
There was talk of Keane demanding an apology from Ward via a statement at last night’s press conference in Wroclaw.
Instead, it is Keane who will be offering the hand of conciliation to Arter, according to O’Neill.
This was a tricky briefing for O’Neill for he knew what was coming after Ward’s revealing words filtered through around noon yesterday.
O’Neill couldn’t dodge the bullet and knew he had to draw some of the heat from his combustible assistant while also emphasising his support for his No 2.
To his credit, he managed to juggle the grenades without dropping them. First, he dealt with Ward, who missed the games against France and USA and was not onhand to witness anything.
‘I have spoken to Stephen, I did when I heard about it [the audio] today,’ said O’Neill.
‘Do I have sympathy or empathy for a 33-year-old who has known about social media for a lengthy time and says he’s just telling it to a crowd of mates? Today… probably not. Tomorrow… probably not also.
‘He has been betrayed by some of his friends, who he has known for a long, long time. That will be a disappointment for him. I assume he’s apologised for himself and I think he’s spoken to Roy as well.’
O’Neill likes to keep all things inhouse so will Ward’s indiscreet comments have implications for his Ireland career?
‘Absolutely not. The only implication it has for Stephen is if he’s fit to play and come with us and he’ll be there.
‘It will only be age and ability which prevents him coming to the next squads.’
And what of the content? Did Ward’s description of Keane and Walters rutting each other like stags, and Keane’s volley of vitriol towards Arter, tally with the version as initially told to O’Neill.
‘No,’ he replied firmly before backing Keane to the hilt.
‘In my time, I’ve chosen two brilliant, brilliant, assistant managers, two characters, two world class players — John Robertson and the young man himself Roy Keane. They’re different, but at the end of it all, none of them have ever let me down.
‘I’ve managed pretty successfully for quite a number of years. I know what I’m getting at the end of the day. Roy Keane has had a big influence on getting to where we are at this minute.
‘Roy Keane drives people. That’s what I want him in for.
‘He was looking for exacting standards and that’s exactly what I want, exacting standards whatever way they are mentioned to people.
‘I think while the game has changed a bit, hopefully it hasn’t changed that much that you cannot use some industrial language to a player at the end of it all.
‘That’s not to say that every utterance that myself or Roy Keane makes is absolutely and utterly correct,’ he added.
O’Neill knows there is a difference between vocal encouragement and nasty personal taunts, which Keane fired at Walters and Arter, according to Ward.
Walters bends to no one and stood his ground when goaded by Keane before the trip to France, to the extent that the two men had to be split up by players.
In Paris, Walters suggested that Keane come to his room to talk things out, but Keane would have none of it, according to Ward.
As for Arter, Keane appears to have taken a personal dislike to the midfielder, who isn’t afraid to speak up for himself. The tone of Keane’s vulgarity towards Arter, as relayed by Ward, is utterly offensive and repugnant.
Even if half of it is true, Keane comes out of it all in a poor light.
O’Neill knows this and it’s why he had words with his No2 about offering a show of appeasement towards Arter.
For without that, Keane’s reputation with the squad, and the public, would suffer. Already, there are players fearful of him and his mood swings.
Liam Brady shrewdly observed yesterday that Keane gives the impression he doesn’t like football and those who play it.
He certainly has it in for Arter and perhaps that is affecting the Declan Rice situation, for he spoke to Arter in the team hotel after the Keane attack.
Would Ireland be better off without Keane’s menace? Privately, some players would say yes.
Others reckon that snippets of Keane’s advice can help them become better players, and are prepared to put up with the odd snarly outburst.
As for O’Neill, he is foursquare behind Keane and he is the one that counts.
‘If I thought something was seriously and utterly out of hand that was going to cause ferocious consternation in the camp I would look at it regardless of who it was.
‘I think that’s how I have done that with my managerial career. As manager, the responsibility is mine,’ he said.
O’Neill made a comment last night about having ‘a really good conversation [with Keane] before Coronation Street’ when the summer rows first broke out.
Whatever about that, this is certainly one soap opera that remains compulsive viewing.
‘Stephen has been betrayed by some of his friends’ ‘Roy drives people, that’s what I want him here for’