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When The Keane Machine Broke Down
Written by Pessimistic on Wednesday, 8th Oct 2014 12:08

The American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce once said that in each human heart there is a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale and the diversity of character is due to their unequal activity. I suppose in the sad case of Roy Keane we were left with a bit of an ass who turned out to be pig ignorant!

His tiger was not reserved exclusively for the football field however and many players, and sometimes even supporters too, glimpsed at his darker side. In his soon to be released autobiography, he tells us that he never liked the colour blue and all the clubs he despised wore it so in some respects taking on the task of managing Town was like the pope managing a brothel. He was in charge of something that aesthetically he viewed as disgusting and it was essentially his nemesis.

I will be honest. I never much liked the guy from day one. If he hates the colour blue then I abhor the colour red with equal venom and if we are talking here about colour prejudice then only yellow makes me even more sick as a parrot.

The fall out with Mick McCarthy in the World Cup of 2002 when Keane complained that the preparations for the tournament were unprofessional was typical of the man. He always has had a massive ego and it was more important what happened to Roy Keane that what happened to the Irish team and he let the whole of Ireland down that day when he walked away. Some people have still not forgiven him.

Why Keane took on the job at Portman Road is anybody's guess but it is nice to know he is prepared to admit to some of his many mistakes. He explains that in Suffolk the chemistry was not right, which forced him to move house three times in his short term of office and that he and Simon Clegg were from another planet in terms of social cohesion. No shock there though because almost everyone was!

He says that it was he who instigated a sell-on clause in the sorry tale of the departure of Jordan Rhodes.

I too was full of hope when Roy Keane walked through the door to a packed press conference and introduced himself as the new manager of Ipswich Town. I too felt that with all his contacts in the game and the money that Marcus was prepared to spend that this could be a significant turning point in the history of Ipswich Town football club. I too was left disappointed and bemused when reality finally began to set in and I knew that his head was in the job but his heart most definitely wasn't.

Perhaps Sunderland acquired the nightingale because the supporters purred as he took the Wearsiders from nondescript Championship football to the elite league in one season. Manchester United got the tiger and we ended up with the back end of the Keane machine and what a load of pigswill it was.




Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.

Reuser_is_God added 13:36 - Oct 8
Is this blog missing about 4 paragraphs?
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Pessimistic added 15:53 - Oct 8
Reuser_is_God you are probably right but I think Phil removed some of the text, as I incorrectly suggested that it was Keane who was responsible for the departure of Jordan Rhodes goalkeeping father but apparently it was Magic he did this - which might explain why there is a bit of a gap at the bottom of the page.
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paulthebluealien added 16:13 - Oct 8
I think one thing is assured, Roy Keane led an almost tyrannical rule at Town and as far as I am concerned is never welcome back. It's ironic the man he fell out with in 2002 is saving our club.
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michaeldownunder added 21:16 - Oct 8
Do you think one of the reasons Mick took the job at town was to give Keane the finger?
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dusth added 22:58 - Oct 8
I think if Keane comes back with another club, we should all go "Blueeeeeeee!!".
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HarryfromBath added 00:40 - Oct 9
"It was more important what happened to Roy Keane that what happened to the Irish team and he let the whole of Ireland down that day when he walked away. Some people have still not forgiven him." Spot on.

For many Irish people, Manchester United is something akin to a second religion, and Keane will always be revered. For this Dubliner, I will never forgive him for what was an act of wanton selfishness in abandoning his post in 2002.

Mick McCarthy is a man who bleeds honesty, both to himself, the clubs supporters and the people who now play and have played for him. He is his own biggest critic and will always search for the truth when addressing a problem.

The contrast with Keane could not be more pronounced, a man who is a self-pitying egotist, refusing to take ownership of problems and deflecting much of the blame for decisions taken on to either the players or the management in his time here.

I believe that Keane will be ultimately be judged as having been a lazy and arrogant manager in his time with us, belittling the team he inherited and underestimating us as a club.

If Keane was more honest with himself, he would have held his hands up early on, given up the house searches in Suffolk, admitted to himself that things weren't working out and cut everyone's losses.

The problem is that honesty is a selective commodity with Keane. He apologises, but only on his terms, deluding himself that the chaos he left wasn't entirely of his own making.

The contrast between his and Mick's behaviour both during the events of 2002 and in their time here could not have been greater, and this has immeasurably heightened the gratitude I feel to Mick for coming here and finally undoing the chaos that Keane wrought on the club.
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Pessimistic added 09:44 - Oct 9
I could not agree more HarryfromBath. Everythingyou have said complies precisely with my thoughts on the Keane legacy.
1

Bluespeed225 added 09:53 - Oct 9
I was living in NY during the 2002 WC, and after the walk out, it's correct to say that Keane was not hero worshipped by the Irish community! Mick was!
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naa added 09:53 - Oct 9
HarryFromBath: great comment. I can't agree more. Some on here have reads Keane's comments on Ipswich and been placated that he at least admitted his faults. But I don't see it that way at all. For each tiny admission of blame he sticks in several 'reasons' why it wasn't his fault.

The Jordan Rhodes case being a prime example. He admitted that he looked for his weaknesses rather than strengths - so admitted a failing - but then claimed that he didn't want to sell him and that it was all his idea to get a sell-on clause for him. Thus making him look good in the matter. Despite the fact that other stories at the time suggested Keane's claims to be untrue.

If the sell-on clause statement is true then it says a lot about how of his depth Clegg was at the time as well.


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theobald1985 added 16:58 - Oct 9
not really sure about the whole ireland thing I personally felt keane had a point. Ive read his first autobiography and Niall quinns as well and it does seem that the Irish fa are a bit of a joke who kept extremely low standards and seemed to be acceping of failure and low standards and I have some sympathy for Keane over his time in suffolk-why shouldent players work hard and demand more from themselves-why shouldent they show a bit more ambition and desire-maybe keane did not get it out of them well enough but they were all grown men who were good players and should have had more professional pride.
I seem to remember keane trying to get all players to live within a certain distance of the training ground which is a good idea in principle.
I have also read sir alex f book and he says in there that towards the end of his time at united keane had become fed up of the attitude of players coming through and the way fergie would induldge them and I think it is just a sign of the times but again I would share keanes view-some of the players coming through do think they have made it they dont have the fight and desire that was a trademark of keane himself who was discovered relativly late by forest playing for a poor irish side-he wasent capped at youth level and battled his way to the pinnicle of the game-In his book he said that in his first season as a pro at forest he made a backpass short that cost his team the game and when he walked in the changing room Clough laid him out! going from that to working with players like counago must be frustrating. I loved pablo when he was here but he is one of those players who could have played at the very top but never really made it happen for himself.
Keane didant manage well here dont get me wrong but lets admit that that the players did not do there job properly and not just continually run down a bloke who has achieved an awful lot in the game, coming from a working class family in ireland with the odds staked against him.
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theobald1985 added 16:58 - Oct 9
not really sure about the whole ireland thing I personally felt keane had a point. Ive read his first autobiography and Niall quinns as well and it does seem that the Irish fa are a bit of a joke who kept extremely low standards and seemed to be acceping of failure and low standards and I have some sympathy for Keane over his time in suffolk-why shouldent players work hard and demand more from themselves-why shouldent they show a bit more ambition and desire-maybe keane did not get it out of them well enough but they were all grown men who were good players and should have had more professional pride.
I seem to remember keane trying to get all players to live within a certain distance of the training ground which is a good idea in principle.
I have also read sir alex f book and he says in there that towards the end of his time at united keane had become fed up of the attitude of players coming through and the way fergie would induldge them and I think it is just a sign of the times but again I would share keanes view-some of the players coming through do think they have made it they dont have the fight and desire that was a trademark of keane himself who was discovered relativly late by forest playing for a poor irish side-he wasent capped at youth level and battled his way to the pinnicle of the game-In his book he said that in his first season as a pro at forest he made a backpass short that cost his team the game and when he walked in the changing room Clough laid him out! going from that to working with players like counago must be frustrating. I loved pablo when he was here but he is one of those players who could have played at the very top but never really made it happen for himself.
Keane didant manage well here dont get me wrong but lets admit that that the players did not do there job properly and not just continually run down a bloke who has achieved an awful lot in the game, coming from a working class family in ireland with the odds staked against him.
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Blue041273 added 15:30 - Oct 10
Theobald

Your wish to present a balanced view is commendable but the overwhelming view which has come out of all the published extracts of his book is that Keane is a bully with no regard to any point of view but his own. However talented he may have been as a player, his disciplinary record shows some alarming flaws in his character and he clearly became too big for his boots at MU and while I carry no torch for Sir Alex F, Keane's juvenile challenge to his authority could only end one way. Keane has borne a grudge ever since. At Sunderland Keane believed he was more important than the owner and lost out there too. Why ME ever thought that a man like Keane could ever succeed in a place like Ipswich, with a football pedigree envied throughout the English game built up by Sir Alf and Sir Bobby and built upon with varying degrees of success by John Lyall, George Burley and Joe Royle, is now unbelievable. It is not particularly comforting to read that Keane acknowledges that he managed Ipswich badly, and that his bullying approach clearly did not work. As others have mentioned his disastrous managerial tenure cost us millions and set us back years. As in that great Fawlty Towers episode where Basil encountered two visiting psychiatrists there is enough material in Keane's psyche to keep a whole conference interested.
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Lombokblue added 15:47 - Oct 13
Thanks for the post.
I'm not going to read Keane's book,
Managers are sacked every week and don't whine about all the reasons as the their record generally shows why.
Keane's record at Ipswich was poor and out of the dozens of players he signed I can only think of Carlos Edwards as a success.
PJ's reign turned out to be even worse but Keane seemed to have spent all the money by then.
If PJ wrote a book I would buy it although it would probably have no chapter 9, chapters 5 and 6 would be flakey and the ending would an anti-climax.


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Hegansheroes added 18:03 - Oct 24
Didn't think much of this blog or most of the comments. He was not a success at Ipswich but a lot of the blame must fall at Clegg's feet & to a lesser extent at ME's. Obviously none of you have met the man as he is actually very charming & has a great sense of humour away from his job however I would not like him to be my boss as his expectations are too high for mere mortals.
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