We cannot get enough of Roy
WHEN it comes to Roy Keane, everything is magnified. Even a simple misunderstanding, as we discovered last week. Monday Night Football was sauntering to an uneventful end on Sky Sports. Liverpool had recovered from Andy Robertson’s early error to pretty much wrap up the l eague title by beating Arsenal.
Keane had been laying it on thick about how much he liked Jurgen Klopp’s team. He used the word outstanding about five times in three sentences.
So effusive was his praise of the champions that one had to wonder if Keane was simply talking up Liverpool’s greatness on the off-chance that Alex Ferguson was watching, just to annoy him.
You know the rest. Klopp, waiting to be interviewed, heard Keane use the word ‘sloppy’ and seized upon it. With that, social media went into meltdown with thousands of twitter users, including whoever runs the Sky Sports account, discovering the popcorn emoji on their phone. Keane vs Klopp. Battle lines were drawn.
Except they weren’t. It was all reasonably good- natured and Keane was even joking by the end. But perspective is often lost when it comes to Roy Keane.
It is why Sky Sports have shelled out the big bucks for him. Look what he has done now! Needled Jurgen Klopp! What will he say next time he’s in the studio?
Fifteen years after leaving Old Trafford in acrimonious circumstances, Keane remains one of the most compelling characters in English football. We always want more of him.
His analysis of football matches may not be as incisive as Gary Neville, but he will always be more box-office than his former teammate, especially as he seems to hold players’ performances to the same ridiculously high standards he applied when his magnificence was inspiring Manchester United to title after title.
Those t hat l ove Keane’s punditry will say that he stands out because he is brutally honest.
If a weekend of football goes by with Jamie Redknapp and Michael Owen not saying much at all, Keane is needed to blow a fuse. To talk about hitting David De Gea or making Harry Maguire walk back to Manchester from London.
In the current media landscape where value is measured out in clicks and likes, Keane’s righteous anger and candour is a godsend for television producers. And he understands what makes good telly too, and that’s not necessarily a cold look at the issues with Liverpool’s high defensive line.
The funny thing is that the most interesting thing Keane said was earlier on Monday night when he and Jamie Carragher were discussing Manchester United’s ropey start to the season.
During Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s time in charge, Keane has noticeably shielded his friend from criticism, laying the blame for poor performances at the feet of De Gea, Maguire, Paul Pogba and others.
However, on Monday, he changed his tune and accepted that Solskjaer was under pressure. ‘Ole will probably have to get his hands on a trophy,’ Keane said of his former team-mate.
‘I think the honeymoon period is certainly over for Ole, and the pressure starts to mount now, particularly with the performances l i ke that over the l ast week.’
There was that brutal honesty again. Straight and to the point. And had Klopp not misunderstood what ‘Mr Keane’ was saying later on, that might have made the headlines and provided the clickbait the following day.
But there’s something sad about the fact that Keane will now only cross swords with Klopp from a television studio.
There was a time when he must have thought that he would be in the hotseat which his friend now sits in at Old Trafford. So sure was Keane that his future was in management that he once blasted punditry work, saying he would rather visit the dentist.
But it is eight years since he was seriously considered for a toplevel manager job – when he was in the running for the revolving door of the manager’s office at Nottingham Forest.
And his time as assistant to Paul Lambert and Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa and Ireland respectively hardly enhanced his reputation, or job prospects, with the same stories of falling out with players that blighted his time at Ipswich.
So, instead of becoming the manager everyone felt that he would, Keane is left to do a job he claimed that he’d never do.
At least, he knows how to remain relevant. The international break will only deepen our craving for Roy’s acid tongue and brutal honesty once the Premier League returns.
And there will be a lot more clicks and likes for Sky Sports – which at the end of the day, is all that really matters, isn’t it?
‘His anger and candour is a godsend for TV’