Early Doors - Your morning briefing blog

The best of Roy Keane

Fri Dec 05 08:54AM

(Note: That's a picture of Roy Keane on the right. Honestly.)

Why should anyone be surprised that great players rarely make great managers? The two jobs require a totally different set of skills.

Expecting somebody to go directly from one to the other is like getting a top-class roofer and telling him to design a cathedral.

There is not much crossover between the qualities that make a great player and those that make a great manager.

You might find the occasional exception who is good at both, like Johan Cruyff, or indeed good at neither, like Carlton Palmer.

In Roy Keane's case, it was his psychotic intensity that allowed him to overcome physical and technical limitations to become one of the best midfielders in the world.

But put the man with the wild eyes, sarcastic put-downs and complete intolerance of those less dedicated than himself (i.e. everybody) in charge of the dressing room and it is going to be just plain scary. Especially with that beard.

The Sun 'exclusively reveals' what went on behind the scenes during Keane's reign in an entertaining but entirely unsurprising piece.

Basically, it turns out that Keano has got a bit of a temper on him.

It will shock nobody to learn that he "hurled foul-mouthed tirades at both senior and junior players", or indeed that he launched a "bizarre kung-fu attack" on a tactics board.

More shocking is that he informed Niall Quinn of his resignation via text. Early Doors struggles to imagine Keane plugging away at his keypad, swearing when the predictive text function gives him 'of' instead of 'me'.

Keane has always seemed like the kind of man who thought that if anything is worth saying, it should be said face-to-face.

ED has always assumed that he viewed mobiles as no better than prawn sandwiches or Rolex watches - the kind of frippery that represents everything artificial and empty about the modern world.

But now we find out that he was probably bombarding Mick McCarthy with angry texts as he stormed out of Saipan in 2002.

"stik it up ur bolix" lacks the panache of the original version, and might not boast the zen philosophy of seagulls and trawlers, but it certainly makes you think. Mainly, how?

THE BEST OF ROY KEANE

"Aggression is what I do. I go to war. You don't contest football matches in a reasonable state of mind"

"Mick, you're a liar...you're a f***ing w***er. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a f***ing w***er and you can stick your World Cup up your a***. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country. You can stick it up your b******s." How Niall Quinn remembers Keane's legendary rant at Mick McCarthy before the 2002 World Cup.

"That man can rot in hell for all I care." - Keane delivers a more considered verdict on McCarthy.

"Nobody would play for me but we'd have great facilities." - On one day becoming Ireland manager.

"Some people come to Old Trafford and can't spell football, let alone understand it. They have a few drinks and a prawn sandwich but don't realise what's happening on the pitch"

"Rolex watches, garages full of flash cars, mansions, set up for life. Forgot the game, lost the hunger that got you the watches, cars and mansions."

"Just because you're paid £120,000 a week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you're a superstar." - On the next captain of Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand.

"Maybe we should have had an open-top bus last weekend because everyone was getting carried away by three victories. Arsenal went 50 games unbeaten at one stage, remember. People took their eye off the ball this week - everybody at the club." - After a home defeat to Manchester City, April 2008. Keane refused an open-top bus tour after Sunderland's promotion the previous year.

"Before the game there was all this stuff about anti-racism and anti-bullying. It would be a good idea to start wearing wristbands for anti-diving."

"I'll f***ing see you out there. I'll see you out there. Shut your mouth up, you. Every week you pretend you're a nice guy. (To referee Graham Poll) He can shut his f***ing mouth." - A classic tunnel bust-up with Patrick Vieira in 2005. Goodness only knows what the mascots were thinking. Remarkably, Vieira was one of the people Keane actually respected.

"Patrick Vieira is 6 foot 4, and he starts having a go at Gary Neville, so I said 'come on have a go at me,' that's it." - Reflecting on the Vieira incident.

"Maybe Gary deserves to be chased up a tunnel every now and then - there would be a queue for him, probably. But you have to draw a line eventually." - And again.

"I'd waited long enough. I f***ing hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you c***. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries." - On his infamous Alf-Inge Haaland tackle.

- - -

RELIEVED MAN OF THE DAY: David James, whose incredible clanger against Wolfsburg is buried beneath the Keane post-mortems in today's papers. And Early Doors.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I have every faith in him and love him to bits." Tony Adams on James.

FOREIGN VIEW: 'More home-grown and less foreigners!' - Chanting Real Madrid fans made their displeasure plain at the presentation of new signing Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. It rhymes in Spanish ("¡Mas cantera y menos de fuera!")

Meanwhile, the front page of Gazzetta dello Sport pictures Gennaro Gattuso with an All Black in a headlock.

COMING UP: Exhaustive Premier League previews, plus the worst of Calamity James, Jim White on Roy Keane and fantasy picks for the weekend.

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