Roy’s obsession with winning and the demands he put on others made him the most influential player in the dressing room. He became a great captain through that and, to my mind, he is the best player I have had in all of my time here. Sir Alex Ferguson, June 2006
Roy Keane was very famously all about winning throughout his career, delivering nothing but 100% and expecting no less from any of his teammates at all times.
By his own admission he didn’t always see eye to eye with his Manchester United teammates, nor was he even necessarily fond of all of them, particularly towards the end of his time at Old Trafford when he was an old head in a new, young dressing room.
Referring to players like Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, Keane told Sky Sports recently, “The dynamics were changing, and I always used to roll with it - I didn't mind because it would give you a new type of energy, especially if they were good players who could help us win trophies.
“But towards the end, I remember thinking that with some of these lads, I didn't get them and their banter, their humour. I was barely having a conversation with any of them, but I was constantly looking at the bigger picture of whether they were going to be good players for Man United.”
Crucially, he could put personal taste aside because winning trophies was all that mattered.
Keane was once told as a schoolboy that he was ‘too small’ to make it at as a footballer. And having been turned down by English teams when asking for trials, it was only through hard work and determination that he was able to join semi-professional club Cobh Ramblers.
It while with Cobh on Ireland’s south coast that he was spotted by Nottingham Forest in 1990 and finally got the chance to move to England following a successful trial.
The transfer fee was just £47,000, yet Keane’s rise from obscurity was nothing short of meteoric. Despite early bouts of homesickness, the young midfielder ultimately thrived and by the end of his first season as a professional footballer was playing in the 1991 FA Cup final aged just 19.
After two further excellent seasons at Forest, Keane joined Manchester United in a British record transfer worth £3.75m in 1993. United snatched Keane from under the nose of Blackburn, who were reputedly prepared to pay £4m in order to get the deal done.
The youngster had given a verbal agreement to Blackburn boss Kenny Dalglish, only for a delay in the paperwork to leave it incomplete until the correct papers could be signed after the weekend. That slight delay was all Alex Ferguson needed to steal in and complete it for United.
Keane was an instant hit at Old Trafford, joining an experienced team of league champions already brimming with talent. In those early seasons in Manchester he was an all-action box-to-box midfielder, a player who could be both the first wave of attack and the last line of defence.
As Keane matured and the squad around him began to change and develop with new players, he slowly adapted and morphed into the more defensive and destructive role he ultimately became known for – not that he ever lost his eye for an important goal.
Keane was the natural choice to takeover the United captaincy when Eric Cantona suddenly retired in 1997 and his fighting spirit was clear to see in the way he returned from serious injury that ruled him out of most of that first season wearing the armband - not least because the next few years saw Keane at his very best in the sense of grit, determination and leadership.
The 1998/99 treble season obviously stands out as defining as it produced arguably the most iconic moment of Keane’s whole career.
As United trailed Juventus 3-1 on aggregate in the Champions League semi-final second leg, the Irishman refused to give in. It was his goal, famously labelled ‘a captain’s goal’ in a legendary piece of commentary by Clive Tyldesley, that kickstarted that comeback in Turin and his unyielding performance that led United to a first final in the competition for 31 long years.
Shortly after his goal, still 10 minutes before half-time and with United still trailing, Keane was booked for a foul on Zinedine Zidane. That yellow card ensured he would miss the final if his team got there, yet his personal misery didn’t dampen his competitive edge.
United went on to win the game 3-2, an historic victory. But while Keane soon lifted the Premier League trophy and the FA Cup – he played only nine minutes in the cup final because of an early knock – he donned a grey suit for the big one in Barcelona to sit it out alongside Paul Scholes.
United completed the treble without him and both he and Scholes shied away from the trophy presentation, despite playing such huge roles in the season as a whole. It showed a great level of humility, not wishing to overshadow the achievements of those on the pitch that night – a level of humility that hasn’t always been so evident in other Champions League winners.
In 1999/00, United steamrolled the rest of the Premier League and Keane was named both PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year for his personal contributions. Winning either individual award as a player not known as an attacker remains a relative rarity.
For Keane, his overwhelming desire to win was sometimes his downfall. His infamous exit from Ireland’s 2002 World Cup training camp shortly before the tournament was the result of frustration with the FAI’s lack of preparedness and his misgivings about their chosen facilities.
Those frustrations had been brewing for years by that point and in his 2002 autobiography, Keane remarked that he had ‘mixed feelings’ about playing for Ireland as early as 1993. He recalled that other than the actual 90 minutes the rest of the experience with the team left him ‘cold’.
“Of all the setups I’d been part of…the Irish international camp was by far the worst organised. From training facilities to the training itself, travel arrangements, the kit we trained in, medical facilities – you name it, the Football Association of Ireland got it wrong,” he damningly assessed.
“Coming back to his shambles from a professional club in England was a shock.”
After lifting his fourth Premier League title as United captain in 2002/03 - and seventh overall - tensions later grew between Keane and the club during what became a period of transition in the squad. At the same time, Keane himself was getting older and suffering more with injuries.
His unwavering desire for the very best saw him argue with Ferguson during a pre-season training camp in Portugal over the quality of the setup, while he publicly criticised several teammates during analysis of a defeat by Middlesbrough on MUTV in November 2005.
The footage was pulled and destroyed by the club as Keane had lambasted a ‘shortage of characters’ in the team, suggested that playing badly was being rewarded and proposed that the January transfer window be used to get rid of players not pulling their weight.
By the end of that month, his departure from United by ‘mutual consent’ was confirmed.
His last game for United had been two months earlier when he picked up another injury against Liverpool. It was not how the Old Trafford career of such a decorated and loyal servant should have ended, ushered out of the back door in the middle of the season and under a cloud.
Keane was and still is the greatest and most successful captain United have had in the Premier League era. He, above all others, particularly defined the never say die attitude of the treble team and is among the best players of his generation anywhere in the world.
Thankfully, he did still have a testimonial at Old Trafford a few months later in 2006. Keane brought his new club Celtic to Manchester and played one half for each side on a day that gave him the recognition he deserved for 12 glorious years as a United player.
Keane ultimately only played 13 times for Celtic in the end, opting to retire after just half a season on medical advice and announcing his decision on 12 June, exactly 14 years ago today. Despite their acrimonious parting the previous November, Ferguson led the praise.
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Source : 90min