Farewell and…

Last Friday offered further evidence to back up this theory. What began as a day when Cork people merely hoped to see City defeat Derry and win the National League — which they did in such fine style — segued into the latest episode of the long-running national soap opera that has become the life and times of Roy Keane.
The only surprising thing about his departure from United was the manner of it.
Those of us who often speculated about the arrival of such a day used venture the only certainty was Keane would only ever leave the place on his own terms.
For a time, many even fancied his exit would resemble Eric Cantona’s. One day he’d be there, the next there would be a statement announcing his retirement and he’d be gone forever without any fuss or fanfare. We figured it wouldn’t be in his competitive nature to stand in the middle of the field milking applause on his final afternoon in red.
Any decision about the exact circumstances of his farewell was, of course, taken out of his hands by the club, proving for once and for all Keane’s oft-stated belief that in the end, players are just like pieces of meat.
It wasn’t meant to end like this. Whether the captain engineered his own departure by his outspoken comments and repeated showdowns with the manager is a moot point. What isn’t at issue is that United have said goodbye to one of the greatest players ever to wear the jersey. There were more talented and gifted individuals but only a handful could claim to have exerted as much influence on the fortunes of the club.
To hear some talk of him in the same breath as Cantona and Paul Ince, these past few days have been an insult to Keane’s contribution over the past 12 years.
The Frenchman and The Guvnor both left their marks but couldn’t match the impact of Keane. Without him, there would have been no Ferguson dynasty and the Premiership would have been a far more democratic place throughout the nineties. The hope must be his leaving doesn’t cause supporters to forget that much. He should be up there in the pantheon with icons like Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton and George Best, not merely lumped in with the rest of the squad from the club’s most successful decade.
“He’s an incredible man, he really is,” said Ferguson after another gargantuan Keane performance at the age of 33 last February. “When you are talking about Manchester United in 50 or 500 years from now, Roy Keane will still be regarded as one of the greatest players ever at this club.”
Ironically, it was Keane’s ability to wring these momentous displays from his ravaged body that contributed to his falling-out with the manager. As long as he could periodically turn back the years and dominate proceedings, Ferguson seemed less inclined to go and find somebody potentially capable of replacing him.
Purchasing the likes of Kleberson and Djemba-Djemba were half-hearted attempts at doing that and Keane himself eventually grew frustrated at the club’s consequent decline in fortunes. And every time he spoke out about the waning of standards, he was inching more and more towards the door.
Conspiracy theorists can argue he knew as much, and was forcing Ferguson’s hand. This is the same school of thought that contends Keane’s quarrel in Saipan was motivated by knowledge he couldn’t have performed to his optimum level at the World Cup due to a hip injury — an unbearable notion for him.
Similarly, the fact United fans were complaining over the last year about the team adopting defensive tactics to protect the ageing star can only have hurt the arch competitor.
If United historians will be kind to Keane, his next move should provide a typically entertaining epilogue. Celtic is an obvious choice for him. Still, it’s doubtful Gordon Strachan would import a tempestuous veteran while embarking on a rebuilding program at Parkhead. Even though Keane could play in the Scottish Premier for another five or six years, it’s uncertain he and Strachan could co-exist for that long. That said, they could at least find common ground in bitching together about Ferguson’s ultimate treatment of them both.
The Ireland job is another possibility. Any association that was seriously considering the merits of Steve Staunton must surely ponder the suitability of Keane.
Nobody knows more than John Delaney that the Corkman is guaranteed box office, and with an experienced coach like Brian Kidd or Brian McClair alongside him, he would at least shake some of the present squad — step forward Robbie Keane and Andy Reid — from their slumber and liven things up.
Like Marco Van Basten in Holland, Keane certainly wouldn’t be afraid to drop superstars from the starting line-up to remind them the international jersey is an item you borrow rather than keep.
Keane’s managerial abilities are open to question in some ways. How long could he put up with players less committed to their profession and less capable on the field than he was? Would he learn to cope with the shortcomings of others and discover the virtues of the carrot as well as the verbal stick with which he used to beat underperforming United colleagues?
His success or otherwise as a manager might wholly depend on him remembering that as a twenty-something, it took him a long time to realize the need to treat his own body as a temple in order to prolong his career
“People said I’d flipped my lid,” said Brian Clough of his decision to throw Keane in at the deep end against Liverpool fifteen years ago, “but he did well and after that even Enid Blyton couldn’t have written a better script.”
Whether Blyton or Stephen King writes the next chapter remains to be seen.