Some comments from Keane I saw today, sticking the knife into some former team mates and even having a go at Liam Brady, imo the best player to ever play for us. http://www.eleven-a-side.com/boysingreen/story.asp?newsid=5418 He may have few regrets but Roy Keane stills takes great pleasure at knifing his former Irish teammates in the back if his latest outburst is anything to go by. Keane was asked for his opinion of his former Irish teammates and as usual, was not afraid to spread the criticism as far and wide as possible. In a clearly thought out cut at Mick McCarthy, Keane talks up the present Irish regime under Brian Kerr. “I’ve been told that things have improved since Brian Kerr took over,” revealed Keane. “I’m sure a lot of that is down to him, because he is more professional, more organised.” And the criticism doesn’t end there, as the Manchester United captain says that all bar three of Ireland’s World Cup squad have been failures this season. “What upset everyone at the World Cup was the way I questioned everyone’s commitment, but if you look at a lot of the Irish lads now you can see I was right. Damien Duff’s done well at Blackburn, Robbie Keane’s done ok at Tottenham and Shay Given’s had a good season at Newcastle. But a lot of them have fallen on hard times. “Look at the manager, some of the players. They have gone backwards. I knew that I was working with people with a lack of ambition and I’ve been proved right.” Keane goes further to say that people who disagreed with him on his disregard for the FAI were stupid and he is more than certain as time progresses that he is right. “In Ireland, the clever people knew what was going on. People in sport, in general understood. It had been going on with the FAI for 10 or 20 years. “I got letters from former players like Dave Langan, who agreed with men, said it was the same when they were playing for Ireland. Only guys like Liam Brady gave me stick. They had been through the same system and seemed quite happy with it. Maybe that’s why Liam never qualified for a major international tournament.” In fact Brady played a vital role as Ireland qualified for their first ever International finals, Euro ’88 in Germany, but the then West Ham player was forced to miss out on the finals through a mixture of suspension and injury. But that doesn’t matter to Keane who is happy to blast those who have the check to call his judgement into question. --------- A one man quest to alienate anyone who ever supported him in the past? Having a go at someone like Brady, a better player then Keane will ever be, is absolute b*ll*cks.
its been said before but i'll say it again, the fact that Roy waited until after Mick was sacked and Kerr appointed before announcing his retirement from the Irish team shows his problems with Mick were more personal than professional.
I must say I no longer pay the slightest heed to what Keane says, particularly with regard to the Irish team. I think people who support the team through thick and thin and who attend and watch all the games have more right, and are more qualified, to voice an opinion on the current setup. I just hope himself and his glorious manager don't posion John O'Shea against the Irish team.
Absolutely. That is astonishing. Brady crapped more talent than Keane could ever dream of. But as other posters have noted, actually listening to Keane is more "comedy" than it is "search for meaningful commentary." What an ass.
Re: Re: Roy Keane Still Bitter... And you could argue Brady had as much reason to quit, given some of the treatment he received under Charlton. Yet he didn't walk away.
Good Old Roy He just doesnt give up, Roy seems a bitter bitter man. Ok we all know theres one or two players very lucky to wear the green of Ireland especially as their club form is dodgy to say the least. Take for example Breen, hes no great shakes at club level to say the least, but when he plays for ireland he puts his heart into it.... Its unfair and nasty of Roy to keep putting the boot in, hes starting to dig himself a hole with his sharp remarks. Things would be so much nicer if Roy kept his gob shut about Ireland and worry about what really matters to him... the PLC that is Man yoo
Re: Good Old Roy Fixed your post!!! (Maybe he's a bitter man because he missed a World Cup due to his own stupidity?)
Bitter Man Roy Couldnt have said it better myself, and I think you hit the nail on the head regarding Roys reason for being bitter. Its just a pity Old Cloughy was around to put him in his place... didnt Brian Clough put him sitting on his backside once upon a time?.
I agree with Roy apart from the Liam Brady Quip. If you look at Players like. Kinsella,Breen,Finnan,Staunton,holland,harte,Kilbane.kelly. Kinsella has hardly figured for Villa this season. Breen hasn't got many games for a poor west ham team and when he has he has been awful Finnan does not seem to be the player he was last season and fulham have struggled. Staunton has been out alot with injury. Holland has been away from the limelight with ipswich in division one but has only really shown form towards the end of the season. harte has been really poor when he has managed to get a game (apart from the last 2 games of the season) kilbane has always been useless,so no change there. kelly has been playing regularly for leeds and has actually improved but is still not international class. if you add jason mcateer (rarely figured this season. and niall quinn who has retired and richard Dunne then Keane is right. the players who have impressed this season have been ; Duff,O'Shea,carsley,Cunningham,Kenna,Carr,Given,Kiely,Robbie Keane,O' Brien, and David Connelly. Big Mick has also struggled..
Interestingly, Football365 picked 3 Irishmen on their Premiership team of the year. (O'Shea, Carr & Duff) Not bad for a nation of under-achievers, eh Roy? I notice HRH from Cork doesn't feature in the selection. Terrible to see such a hero in decline. Really brings tears to my eyes.
McAteer was out injured for most of the season, and was one of their more impressive players whenever he was playing. Kilbane's gotten a new lease of life since he was moved into the centre as well - not much use as a winger, but he can do the job inside. Interestingly, Sean Thornton - who made his debut in the FA Cup in January and played less than 20 games this season - was named Sunderland's Player Of The Year. Says it all. Finnan hasn't been as noticeable as he was last season, but he's still done enough to earn a move to Liverpool. Dunne's as up and down as ever - brilliant against Man Utd, terrible against Arsenal. Kelly's played over 40 games this season, in defence and midfield, and reclaimed the vice-captaincy. I'd say only Kinsella, Breen and maybe Holland (I haven't seen too much of him) have gone noticeably backwards from last year. Hardly an epidemic.
well to be fair it wouldn't be hard to be sunderland's player of the year...but well done to young Thornton (the quiet man) i don't know why everyone is slagging off roy keane...nobody batted an eyelid when dean kiely retired from international football aged 30. we have gone from a position of having 2 top class keepers to just one.. nick colgan may be out of contract at the end of the season and may be without a club..what happens if shay given gets injured. and if it wasn't for roy keane's actions last summer we would still have a crap manager and still have a crap setup. so i applaud him for that. i think the reason why he is so bitter towards the other players is that none of them stood up for him in saipan. I think roy will come back next season fitter and hungrier than ever..after all he has had a very serious operation. the summer will do him good.. i am not a man utd supporter. And I always thought that carthy was a very poor manager. he rarely picked the right team and then was tacticly niave during games which cost us qualification for 2 major tournments. I think he was better than Charlton though that wouldn't be hard.
As an Ipswich fan I find it strange that you criticise Holland as one of these washed-up players. He was the fans player of the season on pretty much all the forums I visit - only Counago rivalled him. Apart from the first couple of months - still scored goals - he has been outstanding, despite playing as a central defender for a lot of it. (Slash can back me up on this as he is well connected.) As has been said already, Kilbane had his best season in years, while Connolly and Reid have alerted more Premiership clubs. Finnan & Carr have consolidated themselves as the 2 best full backs in the league; Gary Kelly would be ahead of the majority also. Kinsella has certainly regressed, but put in a good performance for us in Georgia while Breen continues to defy space, time and common sense with his club -v- country form. He has always been like that. Hartey is Hartey. He was always likely to be turned inside out by a pacy winger, but he has gotten some of his confidence back and did okay over the last couple of months - still frightens the bejaysus out of me mind. Gary Doherty has hardly gotten any worse. This is just Roy being the narkey little *************** he is, and Sausagepump is spot on when he points out that Keane doesn't even watch Ireland's games anymore, so why should any of us be bothered by his thoughts on the matter. Now an analysis of the contenders at Crufts perhaps .....
(Treading over very old ground warning) I had severe reservations about McCarthy as well, but its not the McCarthy situation that broke the camel's back for me with Keane. Why did he not just retire immediately from international football after the World Cup? Why did he not go to Man U's "medical experts" then? Why did he have to drag the thing out and then only make up his mind after meeting Kerr? Would he have made a different decision if Bryan Robson had got the job? For me, he showed a complete lack of respect for both the new Ireland manager and the Ireland fans. And as someone who puts country allegiance over club, that's inexcusable. Ask West Ham fans how they feel about Jermaine Defoe or Paul Ince or Spurs fans how they feel about Sol Campbell - yes they were great players for the teams, but the way they left ensured they will forever be remembered for the wrong reasons. That's exactly how I feel about Keane.
Slagging off Charlton is a bit wide of the mark, you only have to look at Hand before him and the players he had compared to his record to see that Charlton did a great service to Irish football, he wasn't the greatest tactical mind, but for the first time he had us playing like a real team with belief, and was harsh on his players when they needed it. He was the perfect man to kick start Irish football, it was unfortunte we didn't make a better appointment when he finally left.
Jack brought authority, discipline and some respectability to the Irish setup, qualities that were badly missing up to that point. However he did have many faults, and probably stayed a couple of years too long.
Have to agree with the opinions expressed by Sausagepump. I think Keane's attitude has been utterly deplorable over the course of the season, with his incessant sniping and this latest outburst doesn't surprise me in the slightest. A wonderful player for us, of that there is no question, but he's a bitter, twisted fool. Now I hope he just goes away.
eoin hand didn't do too bad. we just missed out on goal difference once and that was because spain beat malta 12_0. Charlton was a very lucky manager. he presided at a time when Ireland had more than a few top quality players. he played awful football. i very rarely enjoyed watching them play. they were as bad as norway and everyone slagged off norway. he never fully utilised john aldridge. ireland only scored 2 goals in the euro 88 finals.. only scored 2 goals in italia '90 and 2 goals in USA '94.. not pretty. at least under mccarthy we played like we were a proper team in the modern era. we scored 6 goals in the 2002 world cup finals. we should have progressed further and if we had a half decent manager we would.. I take back anything that i was supposed to have said about matt holland. he had a decent enough season.
The only bit of luck that Charlton and his team ever needed was when Scotland beat Bulgaria in the 1988 ECQ. Other than that, everything was earned on merit.
Charlton took a bunch of talented, some world class players and got them to play as a team, with real belief, and got results with them, something Hand, with a better group of players imo, couldn't. Charlton gave us the kick start we needed, we needed a massive appointment after him to really take us to the next level, which we didn't get, but to slag off Charlton is wrong.