Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Box-office Keane would be a risk... but there is unfinished business for him on Wearside
“I’M shocked they found one,” said Roy Keane, when we asked him about his player, Clive Clarke suffering a heart attack.
“You could never tell by the way he plays…”
It was just one mic-drop moment among many during Keane’s box-office 28 months as Sunderland boss. Brutal, cutting, unforgiving.
So near the knuckle, unsayable, it was comic.
Although probably not for Clarke. While stories of Keane’s harsh man-management created the wince-inducing headlines of his tenure, they still struck a chord with the Black Cats faithful – and probably with every football fan.
Sunderland’s supporters knew that here they had a manager who cared, and hurt, with every defeat, as much as they did.
There were tales of Keane getting a kit man to put up the tactics board before theatrically kicking it down, as if it was Alf-Inge Haaland.
There was the time he publicly slaughtered his Sunderland dressing room for playing ABBA as pre-match motivational music.
He accused “weak” players of letting their wives “dictate” their lives by choosing London clubs over Sunderland – because of the “shopping”. A “sad state of affairs…”
He complained the coastal city of Sunderland was disadvantaged in signing kids for their academy because of the rule setting a 90-minute travel-time radius. “We can’t sign fish in the North Sea…”
Keane once donned the goalkeeper gloves, angry that Craig Gordon (below) had been beaten from 30 yards, and bet his players they couldn’t score past him.
Most couldn’t. “I won £800 off them and could have lost eight grand… I was trying to create a bit of banter… but lost Craig for a while after that.”
Keane could soon be back in the Sunderland dug-out he lit up in 2006-07, winning promotion, before relationships frayed.
He was a lightning bolt, shocking the club out of its losing mentality, challenging standards, demanding blood, guts, and no compromise. Leading, even in goal, by example. If he decides to quit the comfort of the Sky Sports studio, as his contract there nears an end, he can do the same again.
There is unfinished business on Wearside. A bond unfulfilled and ended prematurely.
You could always tell when Keane was on a downer, facing troubles behind the scenes.
The beard grew longer.
He’s a risk – but promotion MUST be won this time.
A fifth season for this club in the third tier is simply unthinkable.
Keane always has much more about him than the caricature of the stories above. There is warmth, lots of humour, self-deprecation and the world can see that for itself, through the Instagram account which his daughters told him to set up.
With the world of football more softly-softly and educational than 15 years ago, he will have to adapt, take a deep breath and turn the other cheek when tempted to revert to the old methods.
But judged on the evidence of his most recent interview, with Gary Neville’s excellent The Overlap podcast, the desire remains. There is a manager in there, at the right club, and given the right guidance.
Once, a few years after he had left Sunderland, Keane the pundit cycled past me on a hired bike in a foreign city, gave a cheery, unexpected wave, and sped off along the riverbank, slalom-style – and looking so happy.
He’ll never lose the edge, but if he can bring a bit of that light spirit to his inner drive, he’ll be a winner the second time round.
Take a Chance on Me. Though Keano obviously wouldn’t be singing that.