The story of Roy Keane, based on his autobiography

[troy andreas]

Roy Keane lifts lid on Sir Alex Ferguson bust-up in new book
By Paul Hirst



Roy Keane has revealed a sweary bust-up with Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz led to his acrimonious departure from Manchester United.

Contents of Keane's incendiary autobiography The Second Half were published by national newspapers online on Monday after a Tesco store in Burnage made a huge blunder by starting to sell the book three days early.

Keane writes about a drink-fuelled fight with former team-mate Peter Schmeichel, gives his opinion on the current United squad, and details the events that led up to his exit from Old Trafford in November 2005.

Ferguson claimed in his autobiography, published last year, that Keane's infamous interview on MUTV, in which he apparently tore into his team-mates for their performance in the 4-1 loss to Middlesbrough, was the point at which he decided to release the midfielder, whom he signed from Nottingham Forest in 1993.

In The Second Half, Keane says his comments in the interview were overblown by the club, whom he accuses of leaking the tape.

"The idea that I was in the studio ranting and raving, no... I was told the interview was being pulled. They couldn't believe what I had said. I didn't think it was too bad. I thought everyone was overreacting," Keane was quoted as saying by national newspapers.



Keane's emotions then hit boiling point when Ferguson's assistant manager Queiroz heard about the interview and accused him of being disloyal.

Keane writes about the row with the Portuguese: "I said, 'Don't you ******* talk to me about loyalty, Carlos. You left this club after 12 months a few years ago for the Real Madrid job. Don't you dare question my loyalty."

In a show of clear subordination against Ferguson, Keane then directed his ire towards the Scot after he stepped in to stop the row between his assistant and captain.

"You as well gaffer. We need ******* more from you," Keane claims he said to the United manager. "We need a bit more, gaffer. We're slipping behind other teams."

Keane later apologised to Ferguson and Queiroz, but he says he now regrets doing so.

Keane writes: "Now I kind of wish I hadn't (apologised). Afterwards I was thinking, 'I'm not sure why I ******* apologised.' I just wanted to do the right thing."

When Keane was called into Ferguson's office in November 2005, he says he knew the manager was going to inform he wanted him out of the club.

Keane writes: "I said to Ferguson, 'Can I play for somebody else?' And he said, 'Yeah you can, cos we're tearing up your contract' So I thought, All right - I'll get fixed up. I knew there'd be clubs in for me when the news got out. I said, 'Yeah - I think we have come to the end.' I just thought, '*******' p****' - and I stood up and went 'Yeah. I'm off."'

Keane, who moved to Celtic to play out the final five months of his career, claims his departure from United cost him a lot of money because he was due to receive a £1million bonus if he had played in 50 per cent of the first-team games in that 2005-06 season.

Keane clashed with many of his team-mates during a 12-and-a-half year spell at Old Trafford in which he played for the club 480 times.

The biggest row appears to have come while United were on their pre-season tour of Asia in 1998.

Schmeichel, who played alongside Keane for six years, confronted the midfielder in the team hotel in Hong Kong after the pair had been on a night out.

Keane was apparently so drunk that he had to rely on team-mate Nicky Butt to recount to him exactly what happened the morning after.

"Butty had refereed the fight," Keane writes. "(He said) Peter had grabbed me, and I'd head-butted him - we'd been fighting for ages."

Keane says he did not like the Dane as he felt he was regularly trying to draw attention to himself with his actions in certain matches.

The Irishman claims former United forward Sir Bobby Charlton, who would have been 61 at the time, was woken up by the fight.

Keane claims Ferguson branded the pair "a disgrace to the club" after hearing about the scrap, which apparently happened on the 27th floor of the hotel.

In the book it is claimed Schmeichel tried to cover up the fight by claiming at a press conference that the black eye Keane gave him was inflicted during a training session.

Keane also hits out at Rio Ferdinand for missing a drug test, criticises Ferguson over his legal dispute regarding the Rock of Gibraltar horse, and also claims he does not regret making the tackle that ended Alf-Inge Haaland's career, in the book.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/roy-keane-lifts-lid-sir-7892913

[troy andreas]

Roy Keane reveals time he head-butted Peter Schmeichel in hotel fight with Man United goalkeeper
By men newsdesk



Roy Keane has admitted to head-butting Peter Schmeichel during a fight which led Sir Alex Ferguson to tell them both they had disgraced Manchester United.

In his autobiography, The Second Half, to be published this week, Keane claims he and Schmeichel engaged in a booze-fuelled bust-up during the 1998 per-season tour of Asia.

Keane revealed that afterwards, Ferguson had fumed the fight had woken up Sir Bobby Charlton.

Keane said: "I had a bust-up with Peter when we were on a pre-season tour of Asia, in 1998, just after I came back from my cruciate injury. I think we were in Hong Kong. There was drink involved.

"There'd been a little bit of tension between us over the years, for football reasons. Peter would come out shouting at players, and I felt sometimes he was playing up to the crowd: 'Look at me!'

"He was probably doing it for concentration levels, but I felt he did it too often, as if he was telling the crowd: 'Look what I have to deal with'.

"He said: 'I've had enough of you, It's time we sorted this out.' So I said 'Okay' and we had a fight. It felt like 10 minutes. There was a lot of noise - Peter's a big lad.

"I woke up the next morning. I kind of vaguely remembered the fight. My hand was really sore and one of my fingers was bent backwards.

"The manager had a go at us as we were getting on the bus, and people were going on about a fight in the hotel the night before. It started coming back to me - the fight between me and Peter."

Keane tells how he had to rely on Nicky Butt for an account of the fight before Fergie called him and Schmeichel into his office to give them the hairdryer treatment.

Keane writes: "In the meantime, Nicky Butt had been filling me in on what had happened the night before. Butty had refereed the fight. Anyway, Peter had grabbed me, I'd head-butted him - we'd been fighting for ages.

"At the press conference, Peter took his sunglasses off. He had a black eye. The questions came at him 'Peter, what happened to your eye?'

"He said ' I just got an elbow last night, in training'. And that was the end of it.

"The first day back at the training ground, the manager pulled myself and Peter into his office.

"He knew exactly where we'd fought - I think he mentioned the 27th floor. He told us that we were a disgrace to the club, and that we'd woken Bobby Charlton up, that Bobby had come out of his room and seen us.

"Peter took responsibility for the fight, which was good. I admired him for it. But Sir Bobby could have tried to break it up."

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/roy-keane-reveals-time-head-butted-7891041

[troy andreas]

Roy Keane: Sir Alex Ferguson wanted me to wear No 7 shirt instead of David Beckham
By JAMES ANDREW FOR MAILONLINE

• Sir Alex Ferguson did his best to stop David Beckham inheriting the iconic No 7 shirt after Eric Cantona retired
• Keane inherited the United captaincy from the Frenchman, and reveals in his new autobiography The Second Half, that United boss Ferguson wanted him to take the No 7 shirt as well to stop Beckham getting it
• Keane didn't want it and told Ferguson to give the No 7 shirt to Beckham

Sir Alex Ferguson did his best to stop David Beckham inheriting the iconic No 7 shirt at Manchester United after Eric Cantona retired, according to Roy Keane.

Cantona shocked Manchester United when he quit the club and football altogether in 1997 and had worn the famous No 7 shirt since his arrival back in 1992.

Keane inherited the United captaincy from the Frenchman, and the former midfielder reveals in his new autobiography The Second Half, that United boss Ferguson wanted him to take the No 7 shirt as well to stop Beckham getting it.

Keane refused and Beckham, who had worn the No 10 shirt the season before, did take over the No 7 shirt which had previously been worn by George Best, Steve Coppell and Bryan Robson.

Keane said: 'The captaincy is important, but squad numbers can have an importance. At United, ‘7’ was the iconic number.



‘When Eric Cantona left there was a debate about who was going to be the next captain. I was quite relaxed about it.

‘But there was his number, too - '7'. Bryan Robson had had it before Cantona and, of course, it went back to Georgie Best.

‘The manager pulled me into his office and said that he wanted me to wear the '7'.

'I said, ‘No, I’m not that bothered.'

'And he said, "I know Becks will f****** want it and I don’t want him to have it."

‘The little power battles.

‘I’d had ‘16’ since I’d signed for the club. I was comfortable with ‘16’. I think it might have kept me on my toes, being outside the ‘1’ to ‘11’. I didn’t think that I was a number ‘7’.

‘I said, ‘Give it to Becks.’

‘Becks got it, and it suited him - and Cantona. Ronaldo had it after Becks.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2782987/Roy-Keane-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-wanted-wear-No-7-shirt-instead-David-Beckham.html#ixzz3FQ80tRyo

[troy andreas]

Roy Keane: Brian Clough was a better boss than Sir Alex Ferguson... Fergie was just ruthless, all business and lacked warmth

• Keane played for Clough for three years at Nottingham Forest
• Midfielder then moved to Manchester United for then British record fee
• Keane was Ferguson's captain at United, winning seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and one Champions League
• Keane and Ferguson fell out after former's infamous MUTV interview

Roy Keane says Brian Clough was a better manager than Sir Alex Ferguson.

Keane was signed by Clough for Nottingham Forest in 1990 and spent three years at the club before Ferguson broke the then British transfer record to bring him to Old Trafford for £3.75million.

Keane would go on to become Manchester United captain and win seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and one Champions League under Ferguson.







But, in his new autobiography The Second Half, Keane says he still rates Clough as the better of the two, claiming Ferguson was 'pure business' and lacked warmth.

'I worked under two great managers and I put Brian Clough ahead of Alex Ferguson for a simple reason. What was the most important thing in my football career? Brian Clough signing me. That kick started everything,' he writes.

'Different managers, both brilliant. I think Clough’s warmth was genuine. I think with Sir Alex Ferguson it was pure business – everything is business. If he was being nice I would think: ‘This is business, this’.

'He was driven and ruthless. That lack of warmth was his strength. United was a much bigger club than Forest but his coldness made him successful.
'His message was the same. I was never once confused by one of his team talks or his tactics or his training. The message was always fresh. I must have heard him talk 500 times and I always thought: ‘Yeah, that was good’.

'I think that’s amazing. As a manager I would take Clough’s warmth and Ferguson’s ruthlessness and put them in the mix – but also add my own traits.'

Keane's relationship with the most decorated manager in English football deteriorated towards the end of his career at United.



Keane, now assistant manager at Aston Villa, left United in 2005 after he criticised his team-mates to MUTV after a 4-1 defeat to Middlesborough.
That explosive interview - which Keane describes as 'not too bad' in his new book - led to a furious training ground bust up with Ferguson, assistant boss Carlos Queiroz and goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

Queiroz accused Keane of showing a lack of loyalty to his team-mates and when Ferguson stepped in to diffuse the situation, Keane said: 'You as well gaffer. We need f****** more from you. We need a bit more, gaffer. We're slipping behind other teams.'

A few weeks later, Keane was left out of a reserve game and when he questioned Ferguson about it he was told he could leave the club.
The pair's relationship has never recovered and Keane described it as 'non existent' in an ITV documentary last year - in which he also said 'Brian Clough, without a doubt' was the best manager he played for.



He added: 'I never thought for a second that I was more important than the manager. Absolute nonsense.

'There were no surprises (in Ferguson's new book, which came out in 2013). He accused me of managing United behind his back, but I managed the dressing room.'

On the pair's relationship Keane said: 'Non existent. Nothing surprises me these days with that man.

'Control and power, that's how he works. He is still striving for it now even though he isn't the manager. There is a massive ego involved.'
In contrast, Keane has always spoken fondly of Clough. While he has accused Ferguson of not ‘knowing the meaning of loyalty’, he says Clough always treated him with respect.

He said: ‘A brilliant, brilliant manager. The man was a genius, he was good to me, good to my family, he never lied to me, he treated me with respect and gave me time off when I was homesick.

“You look what Brian Clough achieved and it’s scary. Winning the European Cup back to back with a club like Forest, unbelievable. I don’t think we’ll ever appreciate what the man did.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2782926/Roy-Keane-Brian-Clough-better-boss-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-Fergie-just-ruthless-business-lacked-warmth.html#ixzz3FQ8yw77A

[troy andreas]

Roy Keane reveals he profited from controversial Glazer Manchester United takeover in latest book disclosure

• Roy Keane says the Glazer takeover in 2005 earned him money
• Former United midfielder had shares in the club as part of his contract
• The latest disclosure in the former captain's book released this week
• Keane said: 'The Glazers coming in was worth a few bob to me'
• The takeover was unpopular with fans of the Old Trafford club

Roy Keane has revealed he profited from the controversial takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family in 2005.

The former United skipper revealed in his book The Second Half, that he had shares in the club as part of his contract and that the takeover earned him money.

In the latest startling revelation from his book, Keane said: 'From the players’ point of view, it didn’t bother us too much. I had a few shares in the club as part of my contract. So the Glazers coming in was worth a few bob to me.'


Malcolm Glazer, who died last May aged 85, took United in to private ownership nine years ago via a highly-leveraged buy-out, plunging the club more than £500million in debt.

Many United fans will always blame Glazer for the money his family’s company have drained from Old Trafford over the years to service their enormous debts.

Glazer’s aggressive pursuit and purchase of United changed the club forever, leading one group of fans to breakaway to set up non-league outfit FC United while another launched the ‘Green and Gold’ campaign that tried so hard to drive the Americans out four years ago.

During the Glazer years, however, United still managed to win five Barclays Premier League titles and one Champions League.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2782718/Roy-Keane-reveals-profited-controversial-Glazer-Manchester-United-takeover-latest-book-revelation.html#ixzz3FQAMoV26

[troy andreas]

Roy Keane admits he regrets not moving to Real Madrid when he had the chance... after revealing he received the offer while he was sat on the TOILET!

• The former Manchester United midfielder was given the chance to move to La Liga in 2005
• Keane received the offer from former Real sporting director Emilio Butragueno while he was on the loo
• Ex-midfielder turned down the transfer and ended up going to Celtic instead
• Keane claims 'fear of the unknown' stopped him moving to Spain in the latest revelation in the Irishman's tell all book

Roy Keane received an offer to play for Real Madrid while he was sat on the toilet - but turned it down because he was 'fearful of the unknown'.
Ex-Real Madrid sporting director Emilio Butragueno phoned the former Manchester United skipper in 2005 as he was approaching the end of his career.

The Irishman took the call when the was on the loo after agent Michael Kennedy had set up the opportunity, but in the end moved to Celtic after bringing his 12-year Old Trafford career to an end.



In the latest extract from his explosive autobiography, Keane said: 'Michael had given me a heads-up that Emilio Butragueno would be phoning, so I took my mobile phone everywhere with me.

'And - how's your luck - he rang me while I was sitting on the toilet.
'He said: 'Look Roy, we'll be glad to have you.' The club's board just had to sanction the deal.'

After leaving Manchester United in acrimonious circumstances, Keane moved north of the border to join Celtic, the team he supported as a boy.
But the midfielder lasted just six months in Scotland, making 13 appearances and scoring one goal, before he retired on medical advice.
The abrasive ex-player thinks he took a negative approach in not taking Real Madrid up on their offer, and claims it could have even prolonged his career.



Keane said: 'I should have appreciated Real's offer more. It was the most attractive challenge in front of me but I didn't accept it.

'In hindsight, I should have said to myself: 'Go, go to Spain, live there for a year and a half, learn the language, learn the culture.'

'I took a negative approach. The weather and the training might have given me another lease of life, another two years of playing.
'As much as anything else, it was fear that decided me - fear of the unknown.'

The former Nottingham Forest player also said he didn't want to go to Spain just for the ride.

At 34 years old, Keane admitted he was 'struggling physically'.
He added: 'It's no good playing for a club, it's about having a big influence.

'Real Madrid might just have wanted someone to do a job, sit in the middle of the park for a few games. But I wanted to go in and have an effect on a team.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2783036/Roy-Keane-admits-regrets-not-moving-Real-Madrid-chance-revealing-received-offer-sat-TOILET.html