Looks like Keane has jumped!

[milltown row]

tony and his like are looking air time and publicity dont kid yourself laoislad. i'm sure you backed that gobshite when his remarks about wanting to harm someone walking through the Shopping centre came to light.

does Tony know Roy Keane more than me? how daft are you to ask.

as for the plot there is no plot. if Roy Keane had have played for liverpool you and the rest of the pool fans would be on defending him, get over it. loads of managers have left or got the sack, no threads on them

[The Real Laoislad]

tony and his like are looking air time and publicity dont kid yourself laoislad. i'm sure you backed that gobshite when his remarks about wanting to harm someone walking through the Shopping centre came to light

Still don't know what player you are talking about as I don't remember anyone called gobshite at Liverpool,and no I'm not so blinkered that I would defend a player wanting to harm someone else regardless of who they played for

does Tony know Roy Keane more than me? how daft are you to ask.

Probably as daft as you are saying every one is at it to make what Keane done to Haaland acceptable

as for the plot there is no plot. if Roy Keane had have played for liverpool you and the rest of the pool fans would be on defending him, get over it. loads of managers have left or got the sack, no threads on them

Probably no point in saying this to someone as blinkered as you but I have already said the fact Roy Keane played for Man United has no bearing on why I dislike him I will swear to that.
I think the last time I disliked players because of who they played for was back in the school play ground,you obviously haven't left those days behind you
There are two incidents in particular why I don't like him,One was the Haaland incident and you can guess the other one.

Oh and I remember threads on Redknapp, Keegan,Allarydyce (sp)and Ramos to name a few

[milltown row]

course your not blinkerd Laoislad,  i never said you were i also didn't say "what Keane done to Haaland acceptable" if your going to quote me then do so.

[The Real Laoislad]

course your not blinkerd Laoislad,  i never said you were i also didn't say "what Keane done to Haaland acceptable" if your going to quote me then do so.

You didn't condone it either,you made a outrageous suggestion that everyone was at it,that to me sounds like you were saying what he done was ok and he shouldn't be vilified because everyone is at it..

[milltown row]

don't put words in my mouth. i wasn't asked to condone it. my opinion wasn't asked about it, i commented on the Keane leaving sunderland thread. my opinions on him are that. some posters who have it in for him, singled out certain things i posted. but hey, we are all experts

think i'll throw on some more peat and finish of this wine while i play some online texas

[The Real Laoislad]

don't put words in my mouth. i wasn't asked to condone it. my opinion wasn't asked about it, i commented on the Keane leaving sunderland thread. my opinions on him are that. some posters who have it in for him, singled out certain things i posted. but hey, we are all experts

think i'll throw on some more peat and finish of this wine while i play some online texas

It was you who brought up other incidents other than him leaving Sunderland ,you did this when you commented he always played fair as a player....Thats not true and you were challenged on it..
You made excuses for the Haaland incident because you claim "everyone is at it" that in my book is saying its acceptable.
I think you know your wrong

[milltown row]

he was a fair player. I'm sure like you and the rest of Ireland before saipan were claiming he was the best Ireland ever produced, he left and with it split Ireland with their view points on him. get over it. as for the excuse on Haaland incident did you have a view on him when he injured Keane (i aint justifying it either)? i didn't mention it as it was not the thread for it but if you would care to put on a thread regarding your dislike for Keane then do so, we'd get plenty of posts on the subject.

am i wrong? well thats your opinion and other pool supporters. take your own blinkered glasses off, sometimes your not always right

[Yes I Would]

Any one hear tony cas on matt cooper this evening holy fcuk he fairly tore into keane definately no love lost between the two

aye big tony, now there is a true irish man. in his book he claimed he wasn't even irish at all!!!

Heard the interview.  Not really surprised by it. Cascarino let himself down by the overall tone and childishness of his rant.
Him and Lawro were only too willing to put the boot in and offer their expert opinion.
Keano is likely taking little notice. After all in recent years he himself has been only too willing to air his opinion on his former playing colleagues. Its just the nature of the beast.
A complex and intriguing character who will be missed from the game, although hopefully wont be away for long. 

[The Real Laoislad]

he was a fair player. I'm sure like you and the rest of Ireland before saipan were claiming he was the best Ireland ever produced, he left and with it split Ireland with their view points on him. get over it. as for the excuse on Haaland incident did you have a view on him when he injured Keane (i aint justifying it either)? i didn't mention it as it was not the thread for it but if you would care to put on a thread regarding your dislike for Keane then do so, we'd get plenty of posts on the subject.

am i wrong? well thats your opinion and other pool supporters. take your own blinkered glasses off, sometimes your not always right

Why did you mention Liverpool again especially as I have already said my dislike of Keane has nothing to do with Man United..This just tells me you really don't listen to other people and therefore it's impossible to have a proper debate with you.

I'm sure like you and the rest of Ireland before saipan were claiming he was the best Ireland ever produced

I'm fairly sure anyone that dislikes Keane would not be foolish enough to belittle him as a player and argue he wasn't a brilliant soccer player for United and Ireland, that statement is a rather silly one to make.

as for the excuse on Haaland incident did you have a view on him when he injured Keane

Shows how little you actually know and really proves that you are blinkered maybe you should check the facts.
Keane injured himself by making a tackle on Haaland...Haaland didn't injure Keane and if I remember correctly Keane even got booked for that challenge, he admitted as much in his autobiography that the injury was his fault alone
What Haaland done afterwards was wrong when he abused Keane as he lay in agony,though I would imagine at the time he didn't fully realise the extent of Keane's injury,if he did then he was totally wrong,but he hardly deserved the tackle Keane made on him a few years later

[pintsofguinness]

LL

Still don't know what player you are talking about as I don't remember anyone called gobshite at Liverpool,and no I'm not so blinkered that I would defend a player wanting to harm someone else regardless of who they played for

Jamie Carragher said in his autobiography (along with his racist ramblings) that his mates was going to beat up some player in the Trafford Centre.  What a dick!
Roy Keane is also a dick - he played "fair" Milltown Row? Are you trying to be funny?

[Rav67]

LL

Still don't know what player you are talking about as I don't remember anyone called gobshite at Liverpool,and no I'm not so blinkered that I would defend a player wanting to harm someone else regardless of who they played for

Jamie Carragher said in his autobiography (along with his racist ramblings) that his mates was going to beat up some player in the Trafford Centre.  What a dick!
Roy Keane is also a dick - he played "fair" Milltown Row? Are you trying to be funny?

I think the player in question was Lucas Neill, he said his mates offered to.  What were his racist ramblings?

[pintsofguinness]

He said someting about his brothers not being able to get jobs because there were too many foreigners in liverpool - something along those lines. 
I read the extracts on football365 - pretty stupid stuff he came out with!

[milltown row]

again Laioslad you are getting away from the thread title. "looks like Keane jumped"  not "looks like keane jumped all over Haaland" if that gobsite from liverpool cant mind his name, had have tackled someone and broke his leg then it would have been "part of the game" "it happens" get over your obvious disappointment about Keane leaving Ireland and the fact that he played for utd.

all clubs have hard players, because keane wrote a book and highlighted the "incident" to sell a few copies more then so be it. some lesser players from lesser clubs have written keek about shopping centres and friends of his who go around "doing" people. yes friends of his, he'd be some craic to run around with!!!!

again my opinion

[milltown row]

 

[Stalin]

From The Sunday Times
December 7, 2008
Why Roy Keane finally cracked
An isolated figure whose love of the game had gone, the Sunderland manager knew he could not continue
David Walsh, chief sports writer

Why Roy Keane finally cracked
An isolated figure whose love of the game had gone, the Sunderland manager knew he could not continue
David Walsh, chief sports writer

"It's something I've got to try. I keep asking myself, 'Do you want to get back on that roller-coaster?' I think I would be a good manager. But I'm sure if you ask any manager in the world, he would tell you he thinks he is going to be a good manager when he's going down that road. But very few are, it's a tough bloody life. If you think being a player was hard, a manager is a hundred times worse." - Roy Keane, two weeks before becoming manager of Sunderland

In the end, it is the details that fascinate us. Did Roy Keane really inform his Sunderland chairman by text message that he was resigning as manager? Did he leave without saying goodbye to his players and staff? Could it really be that he deliberately chose to go two days before yesterday's match against his old club at Old Trafford? More fundamentally, was the game no longer worth the candle?

In the search for the minutiae, the bigger picture stands before us unnoticed. He became manager of Sunderland on August 28, 2006. On that day, Sunderland were bottom of the Coca-Cola Championship. They are now a Premier League team close to the bottom but with enough good players to haul themselves upwards. Mid-table, or perhaps slightly higher, is their Everest.

Was that failure? Hardly. Yet his walking away from his first managerial job is deeply disappointing for those who believed in him and reassuring for those who neither believed nor liked him. That has always been the thing about Keane, there was no neutral ground. He swapped one island for another, one shirt for another, a tracksuit for a suit, and always the fascination grew. But this exit diminishes Keane because it raises a serious question about his ability to manage a football team. For more than two years, he did a good job, improved the club, but then left at the first truly difficult moment.

Before you would give this man a job, you would want to know what in God's name happened at Sunderland?

THEY called it Niall Quinn's magic carpet ride and you have no idea how much he would have hated that nonsense. But it began in the spring of 2006 when Quinn, a former and much-loved Sunderland player, went in search of the wealthy men who would help him buy his old club. A fellow with a string of pubs, a property developer, another publican, another developer and then Sean Mulryan, the daddy of them, who built much of Canary Wharf. Two billion, they say he made. Once Mulryan was in, the others quickly got on board. The Drumaville Consortium was up and running.

It was, though, Quinn's baby and from what the investors could tell, he wanted to be the club's next manager. They had tried to get Martin O'Neill but he said no. Quinn reiterated that he would do it if they didn't get the right man. It was decided to invite Keane to a meeting at Mulryan's house in County Kildare.

First, he was asked if he would be prepared to work with Quinn and said he would. His short career at Celtic had been a mistake and he just wasn't sure what he wanted to do next. Critically, considering what would unfold two and a half years later, Keane's passion for professional football had been dimmed by his experience of it.

Manchester United had fired him eight months before. A Friday morning that began in the normal way on the training ground ended with a meeting and a sacking he never saw coming. Vulnerable is the man who forgets there is also a bullet for him. That leaving broke his heart but it is only now we can see that clearly.

When Keane said he would be prepared to work with Quinn, the Drumaville backers thought that was grand then, just get the two boys together and take it from there. They were jolted when he reacted badly to finding Quinn already in the house. Keane might be prepared to work with Quinn but they needed to first square things. Having expressed his displeasure to his hosts, Keane turned to Quinn.

"Niall, you and I need to speak outside." They spoke in the corridor, mostly Keane talking, Quinn listening and some sort of agreement was reached to put behind them the bitterness of their falling-out over Keane's exit from Ireland's 2002 World Cup squad. Then they returned and talked turkey with Sunderland's new backers. The money men were greatly impressed by Keane, especially Mulryan.

They wanted Keane to take the job but he wasn't sure he was ready for management and turned them down. Into the breach came Quinn and Keane went off to the FA's coaching centre at Lilleshall. He had deliberately chosen not to sign up for the course preferred by ex-professional footballers and instead found himself in the company of men who ran underage teams, Sunday league teams and, in one case, a pub team. People who had scrimped and saved to be on the course, many of whom wanted nothing from the game except the joys of involvement. Keane was in his element, their love melted his cynicism. He was ready again for the challenge of professional football.

By now Quinn was managing Sunderland but the bus Keane had missed was actually heading straight for a warehouse wall. Four matches into Quinn's reign, Sunderland were in trouble and the call to Keane was quickly made. Drumaville had the manager they wanted. Because they wanted him badly and admired him in the way that so many do, they put themselves in a relatively weak position and him into a strong position.

After his short stint as manager, Quinn's natural position was chairman. He had, after all, put the consortium together and received a significant shareholding. He saw his job as the buffer between his new manager and the club's owners, liaising between a strong-willed manager and a group of men who knew virtually nothing about running a football club.

But the difficulty for Quinn is that Keane isn't like other people and couldn't just decide that all the reservations he had felt about his former Ireland teammate now counted for nothing. In Keane's eyes, they were never going to be friends and if they were going to work together, it would on the manager's terms.

So, certain practices became enshrined. The chairman would be expected to stay clear of the manager's way; he would not come to the dressing room, neither did Keane want to see him at the training ground and it became standard practice for the manager and chairman to communicate by text message. If they had to communicate in a manner unsuited to text messaging, they used the secretary, Margaret Byrne, as the go-between. "Mags," as they called her, was highly rated by both men.

It was not the ideal manager/chairman relationship but as long as the team was winning, no-one outside of the club noticed. For over two years it worked, partly because Keane was good at management but also because Quinn got the Drumaville backers to pay up every time Keane went to the transfer market. He named the player he wanted and almost always, the money was provided. Such was the esteem in which the manager was held that none of the others expected him to justify the spending. They remember him going to one board meeting and that was it. No-one expected him to join the owners for a cup of tea after the game; that wasn't his style.

Once, Mulryan made a rare visit to the Stadium of Light. It was rare because among his many sporting passions, there is no place for football. He wouldn't cross the street to watch a game and only got involved because it seemed an interesting business opportunity. And Keane fascinated him. He met the man and instantly decided he was a genius. Of course, there was a touch of madness there as well but what did you expect?

Knowing Mulryan's faith in Keane, another Sunderland director thought Keane should take the trouble to join the owners for a few minutes on the day Mulryan was present. "Roy, would you please come up after the game and meet Sean and the lads?"

"I don't do that s***," replied Keane.

"This is unreasonable, Roy."

"I don't do directors," said Keane. But they considered they had the best young manager in the Premier League and weren't put out. Their investment was in good hands.

WHEN did it all begin to go wrong? Perhaps in the decisions to sign Pascal Chimbonda, El Hadji Diouf and Djibril Cisse; players with up-and-down careers that never quite tallied with the levels of their talent. In his first Premier League season, Keane had tried to go with British and Irish-born players but at the end of that campaign, he knew the team needed more quality.

The transfer market found his weakness and the club's. Not long before Drumaville bought Sunderland, the club had fired its

chief scout to cut costs. When Keane arrived, there was no meaningful system of recruitment in place. And neither was he starting from a good place: good recruitment is as much contacts as the ability to judge players. When you've been a loner, recruitment is a nightmare.

Keane got players, plenty of them, but not the ones at the top of his list. As time passed, he was reminded of what it was that irritated him about very well-paid footballers. The lack of professionalism, the gloves and the bobble hats and the scarves some of them tried to wear at training, the meticulous way they fixed their hair before leaving the changing room, the bullshit of the badge-clutchers who played for no other reason than the money.

He tried to sort them out, railed against low standards, bad timing, excess body fat, and when three of his players were in a nightclub two days before the Chelsea match, he wondered what he was doing. A couple of months before that, the team hadn't played well at home to Northampton in the Carling Cup, a few supporters abused him and afterwards, he reminded people he had not come to Sunderland to be abused and he would not accept it.

All the time, the sense grew that Keane wasn't enjoying his work. There were reports, too many to dismiss, of flare-ups on the training ground involving the manager and too often, one saw the fear in the players' performance.

The case of the midfielder Liam Miller was revealing. Three times he was transfer-listed by Keane. Miller decided to keep his head down, work hard and try to play his way back into the team. Keane noticed the effort, praised the player's renewed efforts to journalists and once used Miller's tenacity as a stick to beat other players when they had underperformed. Miller wasn't in the dressing room when that was said and Keane never spoke directly to him.

That refusal to develop relationships with the players, to balance sometimes vicious criticism with a little empathy, meant that when the string of defeats came, Keane's limited enjoyment of the job disappeared, replaced by demons who came to torture his soul. The only way to face the challenge of bad results is together and Sunderland, the manager and his players, were anything but together. In the circumstances, text messages to the chairman were of limited value.

Keane's adviser and friend, Michael Kennedy, urged him to sign the two-year contract offered. Keane refused to sign, saying he hadn't done enough to merit an extension. Most managers, feeling the heat, would have snatched that contract and signed it before getting inside. Keane retains a nobility that went out of the game when big money arrived.

Whatever the medium for his resignation message, the end was inevitable because he no longer had the stomach for the fight. That probably isn't accurate enough. Rather, he no longer had the stomach for the game.

People noticed that when kids came to the training ground, he smiled and was soon bantering away with them and bringing them on a tour of the facilities. It was as if he was back on that FA course, talking with the bloke who ran the pub team, listening while the fellow was saying why he preferred 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 and loving it. At the training ground, he would show the kids into the changing room, "Careful now, lads," he would say, "or you'll be tripping over the hair gels." They didn't notice the loathing, but it was there.

If Keane is to come back, either he or the game will have to change.