Roy Keane feels empathy; for himself anyway:

FOREVER THE VICTIM:  Roy Maurice Keane

Back in 2005 Manchester United dismissed Keane when they took the entirely sensible view of sacking an ageing player for constantly publicly telling the next generation of United players how useless they were all the time.




           Roy Keane's interview with David Walsh of the  "London Times"  last week may have captured the headlines for its attack on Alex Ferguson, but most observers would have been  "entertained"  by his story of trying to buy a ticket/season ticket at Wigan.  Keane is right about certain things and last week he was right about Alex Ferguson and right about the curse of small talk.
            Keane was driven by all the right instincts in refusing to play football's game of gladhandling and banter when he went to watch a game at Wigan. Instead of sitting in the main stand, he tried to buy a ticket on his own at the far side of the ground. There was a trademark Keane moment too as he quoted Wigan's exact debt -£37 million-as he encountered problems at the ticket office. Shortly after this he was led away by security. He was right again.  Wigan's ticketing system is preposterous, and he undoubtedly came up with many solutions on the long drive home alone.

KEANO: Controversial, Confrontational, Cunt

Keane's management career has been a study in alienation.  When he stands on the sideline for ITV, he usually speaks in banalities, unable to offer insight.  


           Last week's offering was another riveting piece on the subject of himself.  This observer for one has long become tired of the constant KEANO drama and chose not to watch the 90 minute iTalksport dedicated to the subject on Setanta Sports last Sunday.  Still Keane wrestles in the most over-wrought way with his exit from Manchester United.  "Football is cruel, life is cruel,"  -  is his lachrymose summary of those days.  
            He was dismissed from United, who took the entirely sensible view that there was no purpose in having an ageing player going around telling the next generation how useless they were all the time.  He is like O'Banion in Dazed and Confused after the kids douse him with paint. He has spent his life shoving people around and now here are all these people laughing at him. Oh, how life is cruel.
            Keane hasn't gone back to Old Trafford to watch a game because of this brutal ending.  Keane demonstrated in his interview last weekend his fearlessness in taking on those that have wounded him (in this case; Alex Ferguson).  He is a deeply sensitive man, once his feelings are the ones being trampled on.  Then he gains perspective.

NO LOVE LOST:  "Father & Son"  Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson

There is an ordinariness to Keane's opinions coupled with an absolute lack of understanding for another's point of view and an intense pity for the suffering of himself.       


              His refusal to engage with anything mediocre in football is something which is likely to work in one of two polar opposite ways;  either blinding failure or blinding success.  The former has been the situation in Keane's case.  There is an ordinariness to Keane's opinions, an absolute lack of understanding for another's point of view and an intense pity for the suffering of himself.
            His management career has been a study in alienation.  When he stands as a pundit on the sideline for ITV, he usually speaks in banalities, unable to offer insight. Then the failings of Manchester United, a subject that is essentially about himself, came up and he lashed out.
            We all think mainly of ourselves and we all can talk endlessly about our own problems. Keane has dressed up his self-obsession as a crusade. Last week he was crusading against Ferguson, small talk and the Wigan ticket office but, as always, he was talking about himself.