 Tuesday, 7th Oct 2014 16:35 Former Town boss Roy Keane reveals that he, owner Marcus Evans and chief executive Simon Clegg never held a meeting together during his 20 months at the club in his latest autobiography The Second Half, which is already in some shops despite being officially published on Thursday. Keane devotes a chapter to his time with the Blues and gives his view on most of the controversies during his time at Portman Road. His nemesis Mick McCarthy is mentioned infrequently, he recounts the pair meeting up for a chat at a hotel and Keane saying he was for the Saipan affair - "I'm not sure I had anything to apologise for" - prior to Sunderland playing Wolves. He opens his chapter on his time at Portman Road with the surprise revelation that the three men running Town were never in the same room at the same time, something which only occurred to him after he’d moved on. “There was the occasional video link-up to the owner but the three of us never met,” he says in the book, which he wrote with Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle. “I never once said, ‘Can the three of us get together, to see about getting some players in?’. There was never that trust - never. You need to see people’s eyes.” Keane says he didn’t feel too sorry for Jim Magilton while negotiating to take over at Town while the Northern Irishman was still manager, having fallen out with him when Tommy Miller’s proposed loan move back to the Blues from Sunderland broke down. He says he didn’t get the same thrill as he did when he took over at the Stadium of Light: “I didn’t feel the excitement I’d felt going up to Sunderland. I’m not sure why not. I feel bad even admitting that.” The 43-year-old believes he ought to have brought in more of his own staff immediately in addition to first-team coach Tony Loughlan. “Chris Kiwomya was there, and Bryan Klug, and Steve McCall was the chief scout. They’d all played for Ipswich. It had the feel of a family club that didn’t need breaking up. But that was exactly what it needed.” He feels winning his first two games at the end of 2009/10 season was ultimately a bad thing, had Town lost at Cardiff in his first match he might have seen the task that lay ahead as a “rebuilding job”. The pre-season camp with the army at Colchester “didn’t create the bond or spirit” which was intended and a lot of the players ended up with blisters just as the season started. Admitting that he went over the top with the players after defeats - “ranting and raving” - during the run of 15 league games without a win the following season, he adds: “I think I lacked a bit of patience with myself at Ipswich. I suppose I thought I could relive my Sunderland experience. But I couldn’t get the momentum.” Keane says he and his family never really settled while in Suffolk, they moved three times, and he had no chemistry with Clegg, although believes this was more to do with their different social backgrounds rather than the chief executive’s lack of footballing credentials. However, he did find Clegg inexperienced in football matters and more there for Evans than himself: “I think he was all about being answerable to Marcus, not helping the manager. Everything was hard work.” Keane wanted to add to the “quiet” squad he had inherited and targeted Tamas Priskin, who he believed was worth £400,000 and “couldn’t believe it” when he heard Town paid £1,750,000 for the Hungarian, not having had any involvement in that side of the transfer process. He also felt the club overpaid for Carlos Edwards and Grant Leadbitter, who he thought were worth half the £4 million the club paid Sunderland for the duo. The Corkman says he “liked the look of Jordan Rhodes”, adding: “I still get criticised for selling Jordan, and I have to accept that. But it was also a club decision. We sold him to Huddersfield, down a division, for [an initial] £350,000, and he started scoring loads of goals. “I think I was the one who suggested a sell-on clause, and thank God we had it because they sold him to Blackburn for £8 million. The mistake myself and the staff made with Jordan was, we discussed what he couldn’t do rather than what he could do.” Looking back, he says Lee Martin wasn't good enough for the Championship and he was too hard on Damien Delaney and Colin Healy, perhaps because they were from Cork and he knew them. Overall, regarding his additions, he admits: “My recruitment wasn’t good enough. I’ve no excuses.” He says he “almost physically attacked” Pablo Couñago after the striker - who Keane found “dead lazy” - had said ‘How are we going to win anything with you as the manager?’ having been criticised by his manager following a poor display in a friendly against Spurs. Keane, however, liked Connor Wickham even though he got “kicked out of his digs” for leaving a mobile charger plugged in with no phone connected. Perhaps surprisingly, he also had time for the club’s supporters - “Fans were decent to me” - and felt not joining the squad for the end of season walk round the pitch was a mistake. He says Shaun Derry wanted to sign after meeting with him but no deal was offered by club: “I rang Simon [Clegg]. ‘What’s happening with Shaun? He wants to sign. It’s only a one-year deal’. He said, ‘No, we’re not going ahead with it.’ The warning signs were there.” There were similar stories with Lee Carsley and Kevin Kilbane and Keane was annoyed that the club didn’t call the latter to tell him the deal wasn’t happening. Regarding his bust-up with his skipper Jon Walters he felt the striker went about getting his move to Stoke in the wrong way. He says Walters had heard that the Potters were after him but Keane was unaware of any interest but that the player didn’t believe him, leading to a confrontation: “There was effing and blinding, a bit of shoving.” Keane admits that saying Walters wouldn’t play for the club again was a mistake and that the matter could have been handled better. The two have now made up with the frontman part of the Martin O’Neill and Keane’s Ireland squad. The former Manchester United skipper says he didn't know Jon Stead was talking to Blackpool and then Bristol City about a move in the summer of 2010 and wanted Marton Fulop to join on loan rather than be bought for Sunderland for £750,000. Keane, who says he still gets on with owner Evans, they spoke recently when Town were at Birmingham, also writes about coach Gary Ablett’s death from non-Hodgkin lymphoma - “It was shocking” - and he and the staff visiting the former Liverpool defender in hospital in Cambridge and then Manchester. As for his January 2011 sacking, Keane says he wasn’t expecting it: “I was really hurt by it, not far from distraught.” Overall, he believes he and the club were never a good fit: “I couldn’t feel it - the chemistry. Me and the club. I get annoyed now, thinking that. I should have been able to accept it: I was there to do a job.” He adds: “I don’t think I’m a bad manager, but at Ipswich I managed badly. But all the people I’ve admired - they’ve all had bad spells. So I probably learnt more at Ipswich than I did at Sunderland.” The Second Half is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson and officially goes on sale on Thursday. It can be ordered from Amazon here.
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