February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The argument centered on the quality of players Ferguson had been bringing into the club over the past year. Apparently, Keane reckoned some of them were proving themselves not of the standard required by a team with lofty European ambitions. Unsurprisingly, the manager disagreed.
Anecdotes like this one feed into the public image of the United captain as his own man. Part of the fans’ fascination with him over the last decade or more has been this burgeoning reputation as a thoroughly independent spirit, kowtowing to nobody, refusing to spare even his legendarily fearsome boss criticism when it’s due.
It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to reconcile that picture with the guy who lamely cited the PLC paying his wages as one of the primary reasons for him not being able to resume his international career when invited to do so by Brian Kerr 12 months ago. He’s either his own man or he’s not. It’s not a role he can adopt whenever it suits.
Notwithstanding the fact they haven’t had quite Keane’s injury problems, we haven’t seen Beckham, Ronaldo or Zidane ever putting club before country at this point in their careers. We’re fairly sure that Real Madrid would prefer that they did, but they don’t. Better yet, they don’t go making a huge fuss about it either. They just get on with it. Their country needs them, so they turn up.
“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Roy Keane says he would like to go back to international football,’ ” Keane said last Thursday. “It would probably be unfair on Brian Kerr, maybe the team, too, because they seem to be going along pretty nicely.”
“If Roy Keane was to come back, it might upset things a little bit. So I really don’t think it’s as simple as me saying I’d like to be made available for selection again. It might be positive, but then again I think it might be negative — watching the team last night, they seem to be doing very well. If I was to come back, it might create a bit of a media frenzy, shall we say, and that might be unfair.”
In a way unmatched by any other Irish footballer in the history of the national side, Keane was singlehandedly responsible for reaching the 2002 World Cup finals. It was the qualifying campaign that proved there is, after all, such a thing as a one-man team. His was the sort of unique contribution that earns him a place in the annals, and affords him certain privileges such as lambasting those he figured were less professional in their approach than they should have been.
That was then, this is now. Former manager Mick McCarthy, praise the Lord, has gone and found his own level in the Nationwide Div. I. His craven chief lieutenants have all departed the scene too. Like him or loathe him, Kerr is the type of manager who is renowned for attention to detail and professional preparation, the sort who wouldn’t fail to notice, like his predecessor for instance, that Spain were down to 10 men in extra time of a second-round World Cup match.
Had Keane been fit and interested, the ideal circumstances existed for him to return to the fold last February. Whether under overt pressure from United or not, he thought better of it, and he had every right to do so. By reopening this can of worms now, though, he stands accused of, at best, toying with the emotions of fans all over the country, and, at worst, pretty blatant attention-seeking.
After 14 years at the top, he’s a savvy enough media player to realize how big and gaudy a headline anything he says usually warrants. He uses that privilege often enough to publicly expose underperforming teammates at Old Trafford. A veteran of many newspaper stitch-ups, Keane knew well how his remarks about Ireland were likely to play on the back pages this last few days. Exactly like they played when he made similarly flirtatious comments to the club magazine a few months back.
Who knows what his motivation was for raising the issue again? Perhaps he wanted to test the waters for a comeback. Maybe, as some have suggested, he privately enjoys the intense media spotlight that he publicly professes to despise. Whatever the reasoning behind it, everybody is entitled to feel a little aggrieved here. If he really did want to restart his international career — and even at a waning 33, he would, of course, make an enormous difference to the team — this is not the way to go about it.
When he changed his mind last February, he put Kerr on a difficult spot by announcing the decision before the pair of them had agreed he would. That was his entitlement. He owed Kerr nothing really. At this stage, however, he owes him a small bit of respect. In what might be charitably termed an excellent week in the great Ireland rebuilding project, the manager should not have to go to ground rather than answer interminable questions about a comeback that may or may not ever happen.
Should Kerr criticize Keane’s comments, he ends up in a putative war of words with the best player still available to him. If he opens the door to a comeback, he’ll stand accused of casting aspersions on the squad he’s been working with all along. He shouldn’t be put in an invidious position like this. Especially not by a player who has always preached a gospel of professionalism.
The professional thing for Keane to do would have been to contact Kerr to talk about a possible return. Were he sincerely interested, he would surely have picked up the phone and made a discrete call. That he didn’t makes us think he isn’t.