Looks like Keane has jumped!

[Puckoon]

Anyways I'm not interested in having it out with you again over Keane I know what your stance is already you don't have to keep telling me,I have more important stuff to be worried about..

So hes going to manage liverpool?

[The Real Laoislad]

Anyways I'm not interested in having it out with you again over Keane I know what your stance is already you don't have to keep telling me,I have more important stuff to be worried about..

So hes going to manage liverpool?

That would be some craic alright 

[Puckoon]

Roy pulling out of the SoL

[Tyrone Dreamer]

No matter what he did in the earlier games he wasnt there for the crucial final qualifying game away in Iran. Doesnt say much for his pride in the Ireland journey that he didnt bother making the trip for such an important game but could play for Utd a few days later.

Lies.....can you back this up??

Keaneo is a legend...carried a shit Ireland team to a world cup and was sent home by a thick English ba**ard...and all the lads come on here and back the english man... only in Ireland

Yep I can. Keane was injured and couldnt play for his country in its most important game in 8 years away to Iran to secure a place in the world cup on Thursday 15th November 2001. Yet 3 days later he was fit to play for utd in a routine league game at home to Leicester just a few days before a big champions league game, obviously the injury cleared up pretty quick. I'll post the match reports below. A national hero my arse.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2001/nov/15/minutebyminute.sport

Iran 1 - 0 Ireland (agg: 1 - 2)Scott Murray guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 15 2001 16.26 GMT A

rticle historyIran: 12-Ebrahim Mirzapour; 2-Mehdi Mahdavikia, 3-Mehrdad Minavand, 5-Mohammad Peyrovani, 6-Karim Bagheri, 7-Hamed Kavianpour, 8-Ali Karimi, 10-Ali Daei, 11-Alireza Nikbakht Vahedi, 15-Yahya Golmohammadi, 24-Rahman Rezaei.

Ireland: 1-Shay Given; 2-Steve Finnan, 3-Ian Harte, 4-Gary Breen, 5-Steve Staunton, 6-Mark Kinsella, 7-Jason McAteer, 8-Matt Holland, 9-David Connolly, 10-Robbie Keane, 11-Kevin Kilbane.

Referee: William M. Mattus Vega (Costa Rica).

Kick-off: 2pm

Ireland hold a two-goal lead after the first leg, thanks to the goals scored by Ian Harte and Robbie Keane at Lansdowne Road on Saturday night. But the team's not the same in one crucial position. Charlton's Mark Kinsella takes the place of the injured Roy Keane; Aston Villa's Steve Staunton deputises as captain.

Before the game, some Islamic music; hopefully Richard Littlejohn was watching, and has fallen into an apoplectic fit.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Observer_Match_Report/0,,-36746,00.html#article_continue


Crafty Fergie's at it again


Ian Whittell at Old Trafford
Sunday November 18, 2001
The Observer


Empires crumbling, managers taking vows of silence, the last days of Sir Alex Ferguson's are proving to owe more to historical docu-drama than Match of the Day , but yesterday a record Premiership attendance of 67,651 watched a strong Manchester United side do what they do best, pick apart vastly inferior opposition.
Goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy, his eighth of the season, and Dwight Yorke, his first, were the highlights of an effortless United victory that saw normal service restored and Ferguson, via the medium of programme notes, strike back angrily at suggestions that United, and more particularly the man himself, are careering towards crisis.


Article continues

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The impoverished standard of relations between Ferguson and the media have reached such a low ebb that he refused to address sections of the media before the visit of Leicester.
Rumours abound that Ferguson has even vowed to cease talking - at least to the written press - for the rest of his farewell season, such has been his ire at recent interpretation of events at United.

Still, as long as the current standard of misinformation persists at Old Trafford, that may not be too great a loss. Take Roy Keane - as Mick McCarthy would have loved to have done to Tehran this week for vital World Cup duty. His knee injury, the precise nature of which club and player refuse to divulge, was apparently too severe to allow him to join his country for their most important fixture in seven years, yet here he was in a very strong United line-up, well ahead of his stated comeback date, next week's Champions League meeting with Bayern Munich.

Such is the soap-opera value of life at United these days as Ferguson's reign winds to what promises to be an eventful, if not necessarily successful, conclusion. What the opening exchanges of this latest encounter served to illustrate is that, whatever their current shortcomings against England and Europe's better opposition, they can still deal easily with the pond dwellers of football's food chain. Even so, there were moments of concern as they enjoyed a first-half lead courtesy of Ruud van Nistelrooy's 20th-minute header.

United had enjoyed that advantage for scarcely more than a minute when Trevor Benjamin attempted to turn in Ade Akinbiyi's shot and found his feet taken from under him by Wes Brown. Muzzy Izzet's penalty was well struck but too close to Fabien Barthez who turned it onto his right-hand post.

That was vindication for the eccentric Frenchman who, in the opening minute, had played a clearance directly against Akinbiyi but enjoyed a fortunate ricochet that delivered the ball straight back to him.

Those incidents aside, there was little to worry United as they quickly established David Beckham's right-wing crossing as their primary attacking threat. One early centre was hit into the side netting by Ryan Giggs before van Nistelrooy rose to meet a superb, curling ball that he headed past Ian Walker.

On the half hour Beckham's free-kick just eluded the Dutch striker, hitting the crossbar and falling for Keane who wastefully headed wide with an open goal gaping.

There was no such inaccuracy when Dwight Yorke effectively killed off the game as a competitive spectacle in the 49th minute with his first goal since April. Again, the source was the right wing, although Gary Neville rather than Beckham was the architect. His cross was met by the Yorke who judged his glancing header perfectly, the ball eluding Walker on its way to the bottom left-hand corner.

United suddenly had the bit between their teeth, there would be no repeat of the embarrassing home defeat to Bolton or the capitulation to bitter title rivals Liverpool which so infuriated Ferguson during the recent barren run.

Two minutes after the goal, Giggs struck the crossbar with a magnificent curling shot after an exchange of passes with van Nistelrooy, the rebound eventually coming back to the Welshman whose header was caught by the Leicester keeper at full stretch.

After 55 minutes,van Nistelrooy's low shot was dealt with by Walker and the Dutchman might have done better just after the hour when Yorke's pass put him ahead of the Leicester backline but Jordan Stewart blocked the shot.

[ONeill]

Wee bit disappointed in Keane. Thought he would have attempted to get them out of the mire, especially when 2 wins and you're mid-table.

Mustn't like the managing lark.

[anglocelt39]

Very hard to have any sympathy for him.

What he didn't know about management back in 2003 hadn't yet been written.

Chose the biggest stage in a players career to chuck his toys out of the pram, I'm not one who buys into this, he was sent home bullishit. Can ANYBODY imagine, say, Mick Galwey being chucked out of the Munster Rugby panel in the week coming up to a Heineken Cup final, Nah, he'd have put up with the inconveniences for the sake of his TEAM and kicked up later when appropriate.

McCarthy presided over a bloody good world cup run in difficult circumstances but he was always going to be one game away from the shit afterwards, not forgetting of course that our hero maintained a fairly regular campaign in the media afterwards, just in case we'd forget like.

Chucked out finally by Fergie who knew when enough was enough.

Signed up with his "boyhood idols" Celtic, chucked it in early there.

Sunderland manager takes them up in fairness but on a budget that would make some inroads into the capital adequacy problems of anglo irish bank. Chucks it in when the going gets rocky. But all is not lost, chucks it in on the day Mick McCarthy is picking up his manager of the month award. There is a god it seems

Conclusion, great player sometime in the dim distant past, has been slowly losing the plot over the past few years and appears to be in the process of becoming a parody of what he once professed to despise.

Wish him the best of luck particularly in the unlikely event that he'd make the media a Keane free zone for at least 12 months. What next-Sky Pundit anybody?

[pintsofguinness]

No matter what he did in the earlier games he wasnt there for the crucial final qualifying game away in Iran. Doesnt say much for his pride in the Ireland journey that he didnt bother making the trip for such an important game but could play for Utd a few days later.

Lies.....can you back this up??

Keaneo is a legend...carried a shit Ireland team to a world cup and was sent home by a thick English ba**ard...and all the lads come on here and back the english man... only in Ireland

There isnt words.

[The Real Laoislad]

Mario Rosenstock is the one I feel most sorry for.
Both Bertie and keano out the door in past 6 months..
50% of his material gone

This is from the show this morning 
I nearly pissed myself laughing at this this morning

http://www.zshare.net/audio/522587952d83a20d/

[magpie seanie]

Chose the biggest stage in a players career to chuck his toys out of the pram, I'm not one who buys into this, he was sent home bullishit. Can ANYBODY imagine, say, Mick Galwey being chucked out of the Munster Rugby panel in the week coming up to a Heineken Cup final

OK - so you don't "buy into" the facts. Fair enough, whatever floats your boat. And of course comparing the Munster setup similar to the FAI one is the cherry on top of this fantasy.  I would never see a Roy Keane having a problem with a setup like Munsters, would you?

I am biased towards Roy, I like him, but I think any fair minded person would say some of the rubbish put up about him here is beyond the beyonds.

[muppet]

I'm not one who buys into this, he was sent home bullishit

Keane, McCarthy and Quinn all say in their books he was sent home. They were there. What's your angle?

[ludermor]

Chose the biggest stage in a players career to chuck his toys out of the pram, I'm not one who buys into this, he was sent home bullishit. Can ANYBODY imagine, say, Mick Galwey being chucked out of the Munster Rugby panel in the week coming up to a Heineken Cup final

OK - so you don't "buy into" the facts. Fair enough, whatever floats your boat. And of course comparing the Munster setup similar to the FAI one is the cherry on top of this fantasy.  I would never see a Roy Keane having a problem with a setup like Munsters, would you?

I am biased towards Roy, I like him, but I think any fair minded person would say some of the rubbish put up about him here is beyond the beyonds.

I suppose its all relative, i remember reading bout when Jim Williams joined munster he wasnt overly impressed with th eset up and he helped transform the club into a more professional setup.

[Declan]

As usual Tom makes some very valid points

He's gone, but he'll be back - he's box office
Tom Humphries marvels at how a short run of bad results was somehow upgraded from blip to terminal crisis

IF THERE was a stock exchange dealing in units of pubic interest Sunderland football club went through their own Black Thursday yesterday. The big top left town. Just the tumbleweeds and some of Roy Keane's lesser signings blowing along the Wear now.

Keane's departure was unnecessary but contributes hugely to his legend. The debate and hysteria which he is capable of sparking wherever he goes gains a new dimension with each successive piece of evidence that he can walk away from it all at the drop of a lower lip or a few home points.

Keane often speaks wistfully about how he just wants a quiet life. Every chapter of his unfolding existence makes bliss that less likely. In a world where everything is inflated and distorted by way of routine Keane, who despises the hoopla, manages to be the biggest draw there is.

Perhaps it all started about eight years ago with the prawn sandwich observation, that watershed moment in manufactured controversy which somehow cemented Roy Keane's reputation as the font of most things interesting in football.

Roy's moderately astute observation about the occasionally serene atmosphere in Old Trafford was instantly afforded such standing in the treasury of football wisdom that the term "prawn sandwich brigade" has its own Wikipedia entry and needs no explanation when included in headlines and copy on the sports or news pages.

In a word association test most of us would blurt out the words 'Roy Keane' when asked what prawn sandwiches remind us of. Somewhere along the way as, Keane would be the first to agree, the world got all out of kilter (whatever kilter may be) and the values of football became as distorted as the price of footballers.

Roy Keane will always be box office but yesterday's events at the Stadium of Light tell us more about football and the way we have come to view it than they do about one of its most compelling protagonists.

When the dust settles and Keane's dogs have been walked, and been duly photographed while being walked, we will marvel at how a short run of bad results at Sunderland somehow became upgraded to a crisis.

Think. Sunderland were until yesterday a well run club with a young manager whose first season and a half of governance had brought an extraordinary basement to penthouse promotion campaign followed by consolidation on the top floor while more attractive swashbucklers like Reading went down.

Now Sunderland find themselves without a manager after a brief crisis scarcely worthy of the name. Keane's departure comes after a run of poor results but nothing which suggested a terminal ailment.

Football is football, though, and the game has become so obsessed with itself that context and perspective have vanished entirely as concepts. Football now gets itself into such a dizzying state of agitation over some inane piece of trivia that all the known pyrotechnics of controversy and outrage will no longer be adequate.

Somebody will have to press the button, causing a big bang and a blinding white light and leaving nothing but the echo of an irradiated commentator, "it is now. . ."

Football has altered our entire concept of time. Everything is accelerated. You can become a crisis club in less time than it takes to spell the words crisis club.

For Keane, of course, the end always comes with fireworks and flashbulbs and he leaves behind him as usual, the distinct whiff of cordite; this exit, though, is a little different to the others. Sunderland, for all their good intentions, are picking up the tab for football's failings and its tendency towards hysteria.

Roy Keane knew that Niall Quinn was never going to push him over the precipice. There was no need to. Quinn is smart enough an operator to know the gamble he took on Keane had paid an unexpectedly earlier dividend but the real benefits would be down the line. Keeping a man who has served both as friend and foe happy was the main priority.

Money was a concern but not a pressing one. Keane has spent Drumaville's money generously at Sunderland and sometimes foolishly, sometimes making the mistake of signing the mediocrity he knew rather then the potential he didn't know.

For his money he got not a lot of quality but he got enough to gain promotion in romantically unlikely circumstances and he got enough to stay up, which in the current market is no mean feat.

Signing players for Sunderland is a little more difficult than it is in Fantasy Football, however. There are, as Keane has lamented bitterly, those players whose wives would rather shop in London or Manchester (if not Milan or Barcelona) than by the Wear.

If you were young and could get two or three times as much money at Fulham or West Ham you would do the same. Roy himself went from Nottingham to Manchester as a young man.

Keane, though, increasingly gave the impression of being disenchanted with modern footballers and modern football rather than with Sunderland itself.

In interviews in recent years, Keane has been wont to return to the particular hurt which the manner of his exit from Old Trafford caused him. Saipan was a clash of personalities and an issue he felt worth fighting over. Old Trafford he sees as an institutional betrayal.

Despite the entertainingly Hamlet-like soliloquies which became a feature of his Friday press conferences, he has enough belief in himself to have looked in the mirror today and told himself he was the man to bring Sunderland all the way but one suspects his heart was just no longer in it.

He left because he could, because he doesn't need to put up with the hysteria and the mania and because he doesn't believe anymore there is such a thing as loyalty in professional football.

The cumulative effect of messy exits from Saipan, Old Trafford and Parkhead has been to induce a slight melancholy in Keane which prompts him to talk often about the old days playing with Rockmount FC.

He went to play for Rockmount when he was eight years old and stayed till he was 16. The friends from that all-conquering team of boys are the friends he has today, the guys who come to stay in his house, the guys he sees when he travels home.

Rockmount never let him down or disappointed him. Forest tried to short change him when he left. Celtic was a mistake, he feels now. Saipan is still freighted with much regret but United's treatment of him changed him irrevocably, one suspects. Talking earlier this year in the context of loyalty, he remembered realising on the day of his departure United had statements prepared which didn't even get his years of service to the club right.

"I lost the love of the game that Friday morning. I thought football is cruel, life is cruel. It takes two to tango, also. I am fully responsible for my own actions but some things are wrong. I left on a Friday and they told me certain things before I left that day. I was told the following week I couldn't sign for another club. I had been led to believe I could. There were certain things I was told at certain meetings that were basic lies.

"That was part of the exit plans, I am convinced. Especially with my pride, I wasn't going to accept that. They had a statement prepared and they were thanking me for 11 and a half years of service. I had to remind the manager and (Manchester United chief executive) David Gill I had been there 12 and a half years.

"I think that might have been part of the plan. Then financial stuff was mentioned. I was thinking, my God, I am happy to leave. I won't go down that road. A week later they announced £70 or £80 million profit after telling me I hadn't played for six weeks and so they weren't prepared to do this and that. I told David Gill I had broken my foot playing for Manchester United against Liverpool. Pretty sad."

Pretty sad. And Sunderland a club who have attempted to transfuse the body of the Premier League with a little of the colossal decency of their chairman are the ones who will lose out. Keane wasn't going to wait around to see if Niall Quinn's face would become increasingly more anguished. He wasn't going to spend too many more Saturday's being abused from the sidelines as he was at last Saturday's defeat to Bolton.

Roy Keane will master management. The struggles he was experiencing at Sunderland were a mere blip and January's clear-out of long faces and redundant mediocrities would in all likelihood have energised him. Keane doesn't need the hysteria or the abuse anymore, however. Standing on the sideline watching his team play doesn't consume him or energise him as playing did.

He has his money, his wife, his children, his dogs and home. Walking away is an act of sanity and self-preservation and a curiously dignified thing to do in an era when managers creased and bent with worrying cling white-knuckled to their desks until dragged away by security.

He is too edgy a character to retire to golf or punditry. He will be back and the knowledge among chairmen of what he is capable of in terms of his successes with Sunderland and in terms of his departure will ensure he is instant box office gold again.

The fact he is capable of walking away at any time makes him such a compulsive figure. When the circus opens at a new club the show will begin again and we'll all be ringside stoking the madness.

[Rossfan]

Can we presume that all those "died in the wool"( since 2006  ) Irish Sunderland "fans" will now become "fans" of some other English Soccer club.