De glemte tid og sted, og kom sent tilbake til hotellet. I bussen satt hele laget å ventet.

«Big Jack» var forbannet.

«Where the fucking hell have you been?! You’ve kept us all waiting, you two!»
«Why didn’t you go without us? I didn’t ask you to wait» svarte Keane kjapt og stirret han rett inn i øynene.

Keane var verken imponert eller skremt; Big Jack var en bølle som ikke likte når det var han som mottok. Big Jack satte seg ned tilbake i bussen.

Mick McCarthy, «Captain Fantastic» i egen person, stilte seg over Keano og stirret ned på han.

«You’re right out of order, you.»
«Go and fuck yourself.»

Keane skriver at han mistenker at Sir Alex over tid på treningsfeltet så at Inces innsats og prestasjonsnivå falt et bitte lite hakk, og at han ikke var så høyt motivert som han burde være. I tillegg var både Butt, Scholes og Keane gode fotballspillere – så Keane tror kanskje salget av Ince rett og slett var «good business».

Daglish og Keane tok hverandre i hånda, og ble enige om å fylle ut skjemaene på mandagen. På søndagen ringte imidlertid Sir Alex.

«Roy, it’s Alex Ferguson here. Have you signed any forms?»
«No, but I shook hands on the deal, and I’m due to sign the forms tomorrow.»
«Why don’t you come to Manchester and have a chat with me before you do anything?»
«Yes, but I have agreed the deal.»
«You’ve signed nothing. Come over for a chat.»

Alex Ferguson og Brian Kidd overtalte Keane enkelt – selv om det i utgangspunktet aldri var tvil om hvor Keane ville. Til den største klubben i Europa.

«Roy, Manchester United are going to dominate the domestic game with or without you. With you we can win in Europe.»

Da Keane fortalte dette til Kenny Daglish ble den tidligere Liverpool-legenden rasende.

«Nobody does this to me, nobody does this to Kenny Daglish! You’re a bastard and you won’t get away with it! Blackburn Rovers will sue you for every penny you’ve got!»

Ferguson var imidlertid ikke villig til å matche overgangssummen fra Blackburn og Jack Walkers deep pockets £4m og £400,000, og Keane ville ikke til Blackburn. Klubbene kom ikke til enighet, og Keane måtte dermed trene med reservelaget.

Overgangssummen endte på £3.75m og årslønn på £350,000.

«A thousand punds a week was a small price to pay to be a Manchester United player.»

Sharpe tok Keane til en gullsmed, og fikk han til å vise fra et knippe klokker. Fra under disken tok han fram en skuff som virkelig viste fram godsakene, og det var til slutt tre aktuelle, relativ dyre men fortsatt innenfor Keanos planlagte rammer. Keane prøvde å virke uinteressert i prisen, men så at den ene kostet £2,000, den andre £1,800, og den tredje på £1,100.

Roy ble overrasket da forhandleren anbefalte den til £1,100, men tenkte at Sharpe var en bra mann som hadde funnet en bra forhandler som ikke gjorde anbefalinger utifra hvilken klokke han tjente mest på, før han dro fram kredittkortet.

Da kvitteringen kom for signatur fikk Roy seg et sjokk – han hadde lest prisen feil. Klokka kostet £11,000. Redd for å miste ansikt tok Keane det som en mann, og signerte kvitteringen. Hjemme i Cork var faren på arbeidsledighetstrygt, mens her stod han sammen med Lee Sharpe hos en gullsmed midt i Manchester og kjøpte ei klokke til £11,000.

Lee holdt på å le seg ihjel dra Keane innrømmet feilen, men lovet selvsagt å ikke si det til noen. Selvsagt sa Lee det til alle han kom over, og Keane fikk høre det i garderoben.

«How’s that watch Roy, keeping time?»

Da Roy Keane nettopp hadde signert fra Forest fikk han erfare dette etter en sen kveld på byen. Sir Alex kom opp til han når han kom på trening.

«Roy. Out last night?»
«Yes, I went out  for a few drinks.»
«What time did you get home?»
«I’m not sure, but it wasn’t too late,» prøvde Keano seg.
«Not too late… didn’t you get into a taxi at half two this morning in Deansgate?»

Deretter fortalte Sir Alex hvilken klubb han ble plukket opp på, og nøyaktig når taxien kom fram.

Etter denne episoden lærte Keano at når Sir Alex konfronterte han, var det bare å innrømme alt. Dette skulle senere hjelpe han når tabloidpressen slo opp historien med kun et snev av sannhet – Sir Alex stolte på spillerens versjon.

«I’m pretty sure they have wiped me from their history and I have wiped them from mine, so I have no interest whatsoever,» sa Keano. «It’s pretty scary actually, I have no interest whatsoever – you move on. You always have a little interest in your old team, don’t get me wrong, but I’d have that with Rockmount, Cobh, Sunderland, Forest, Celtic, but if you think I’m waiting and hoping they win these trophies I’m not.»

«I have seen at the business end what these clubs can do to people, so I take that with a pinch of salt.  I don’t have any attachments to these clubs emotionally. I’m relaxed about it and all my priorities are with Ipswich. Clubs I’ve played for in the past? It’s strange but I have very, very little interest.»

Samtidig tror Keano på at Liverpools spillere er såpass profesjonelle at de vil gi full gass mot Chelsea, og ikke legge seg på rygg for å frata United tittelen.

«If anyone thinks Liverpool will go out and happily allow their opponents win, they’re living in cuckoo-land. Chelsea are more than capable of going there, flexing their own muscles and turning them over. Their record is not bad there in terms of league matches.»

«But the table at the end of the season wont lie and whoever wins the league wins it. Both team could win their last two games and that means Chelsea will win it – and that would mean very little to me.»

Andy Cole sier dette i sammenheng med diskusjonen om hvorvidt John Terry skal miste kapteinsbindet.

«The debate over John Terry’s captaincy of England has snowballed into a minefield of moral, practical and sporting issues. I certainly don’t envy Fabio Capello – it’s far from easy to see what should be done next. But what occurs to me, as a professional who played for 12 clubs, and England, over a 20-year career, is that the captaincy issue is a red herring anyway.”

“Some footballing people will say this is blasphemous, but captaincy in football is massively overrated, almost to the point of being irrelevant. Football captains are rarely anywhere near so important.”

“In my whole career I can only cite Roy Keane as being, effectively, a boss on the pitch, dictating play tactically as well as emotionally, and even then Keano was often his master’s voice, for Sir Alex Ferguson.”

“I hate to disappoint those who buy into the notion that every captain gives a Braveheart speech before a game, calling for his troops to die for him and the cause, but it’s a myth. In any given dressing room you can have 11 strong personalities, 11 captains, each capable in their role.”

“Sure, some captains are shouters – Gary Neville – but so are many non-captains. Some captains are quieter and let their feet do the talking – Ryan Giggs. Others wouldn’t dream of telling you how to play, just lead by example by working hard in training and giving their all on a pitch – David Beckham. Does captaincy really require a unique temperament? No.”

“I use Manchester United as an example because I know them best, but in recent memory Rio Ferdinand has been captain, so too Vidic, Evra, Van der Sar. It can be taken as an honour for the man with the armband but the captain’s identity, on its own, is never going to win you a match.”

Videre mener Andy Cole at å ta fra John Terry kapteinsbindet bare er et PR-stunt.

“To my mind, that’s why stripping JT of the captaincy, or not, is cosmetic, quite frankly. He’s upset people, and it would appear nobody has been hurt in this latest episode more than his own wife, which I can only guess he is ashamed of. None of us revel in our mistakes and JT will have cursed himself for his own behaviour.”

“Terry is rightly getting flak, and he’s brought it on himself.  But to argue that he should be stripped of the England captaincy, or the same role at Chelsea, or thrown out of the England camp altogether is too simplistic, and reactionary, and quite possibly pointless. The situation is far too complex to be handled with a PR gesture, even though that would placate the loudest critics.”

«The rumours of his departure had been flying around for a while, but when it happened it was still a surprise. So I sent him a text saying how sorry I was how things had turned out, but thanking him for the chance at Sunderland and wishing him all the best for the future.»

«Ten minutes later, I got my reply: ‘Go f*** yourself.’»

Dwight Yorke mener også i sin autobiografi at Roy Keane ikke passer som manager.

«The manager’s darkening mood was made only too clear on an ominous night for his regime. There were the first signs of tension between Keano and the Sunderland supporters. But that was nothing compared to the eruption we witnessed at half-time. We knew we were in for a tongue-lashing. We waited for the fireworks. Keano emerged from the washroom, quietly, calmly.»

«He asked our kit manager if he can get the tactics board. ‘Sure, boss, it’s over here.’»

«The board goes up. And Keano takes a running jump and smashes it over with a kung-fu kick. He screamed at Danny Collins: ‘Never come to me and ask for a contract again.’ And then the captain, Dean Whitehead, is next. ‘Captain? Captain? Some fuckin’ captain you are,’ he rages, slapping Dean about the head in the process, before turning on us all. ‘I can’t trust any of you!’»

Les hele intervjuet hos News of the World.

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