Roy Keane Leaves Sunderland

On the day that Roy Keane leaves Sunderland after 100 games as coach, here’s a quick summary of the controversial career that led Arthur, Paul and me to write the comedy musical I Keano.

In the glorious summer of 1990, Ireland coach Big Jack Charlton was barking orders at his Ireland World Cup squad in Italy.

Back in England, an equally blunt manager was luring a young lad from Mayfield in Cork to play for Nottingham Forest.

Brian Clough labelled his new signing ‘The Irishman’. Clough had an understated motivational style. He once punched Keane in the stomach for underhitting a pass during a match. Before long, Keane was playing for both Forest and Ireland.

The following year, Charlton reprimanded Keane for turning up late for an Ireland team bus journey in Boston. Keane replied “I didn’t ask you to wait.” The Ireland captain, Mick McCarthy, weighed in with “Do you call that behaviour professional?” To which Keane countered “Do you call what you have a first touch?”

Red Devils

In 1993 Keane moved to Old Trafford for a then record British transfer fee of £3.75m. He quickly started collecting trophies, medals, red cards and fines. In helping United win two league and cup doubles before replacing Eric Cantona as club captain, Keane stamped his authority on the team, and his boot on Gareth Southgate during an FAI Cup semi-final.

In 1997 he injured his knee during a clash with Alf Inge Haaland. Keane later scythed into Haaland during a Manchester Derby match in 2001. “I’d waited long enough,” he later explained through the eloquent pen of Eamon Dunphy. “I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there, I think. Take that you cunt.” Keane was fined £150,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.

1999 was a bittersweet year for Keane. United won the elusive treble of league, FA Cup and European Cup, but Keane missed out the European Cup final for being repeatedly booked. The following year he slammed United fans for “having a few drinks and maybe the prawn sandwiches” and knowing nothing about football.

Red Mist

The next target of his ire was the Football Association of Ireland. Among other things, Keane was upset that the officials, but not the players, sat in first class seats on flights. He was lucky he didn’t play in the 1970s, when the Ireland players once sat on their suitcases in the luggage compartment of a train to Germany.

Then came the big one. Saipan, May 2002. The FAI prepared for the World Cup by forgetting to bring footballs to an island with no football pitch. Keane finally exploded, and left the island after he suggested that Mick McCarthy could stick the World Cup up an improbable part of his anatomy.

The nation erupted into turmoil, as our generation’s civil war began. The 1916 Easter Rising paled into insignificance. Was Keane a hero or a traitor? Well, he was certainly an inspiration to me, Arthur Mathews and Paul Woodfull, as his antics led us to write the comedy musical I Keano.

Black Cats

Three years later an injured Keane left Manchester United, after slamming his teammates on United’s television channel. “It seems to be in this club that you have to play badly to be rewarded,” he fumed. “Maybe that is what I should do when I come back. Play badly.”

He spent a few months in Scotland playing for Celtic, before an extraordinary sequence of events unfolded. Mick McCarthy became coach at Sunderland and was sacked. Niall Quinn (who Keane had called Mother Teresa during the Saipan incident) became chairperson of Sunderland. Quinn hired himself as coach, fired himself, and hired Keane to replace himself.

In his first season as coach, Keane took Sunderland from the bottom of the championship to promotion to the Premiership in 2007. Unable to attract top players to Sunderland, he criticised their wives for wanting to shop in London. Since then, they have struggled, despite Keane spending almost £70m on new players since he arrived.

Today, after a hundred games in charge, Roy Keane has left Sunderland by mutual consent. Who knows what his next move will be?

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