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- See magazines condensed to their 70-71 content !!

November 2002

Keane. The Autobiography

Roy Keane with Eamon Dunphy

Michael Joseph, London, 2002

Bob Rating: BBB

So, what is a retrospective football site like this doing reading a bestselling, controversial, book like this - being as it is about a player not even born till the 1971-72 season had kicked off !?

Well the answer is in the ghost writer's name. Top Irish journalist, Eamon Dunphy, is the same Eamon Dunphy that played for Millwall in the 1970-71 season. Also being a senior player now, Roy has had a long career under some of the most famous names in the English and Irish game, names that include Bob 70-71 stars Brian Clough (Derby County manger), Jack Charlton (Leeds United) and, of course, Liam O'Kane (Nottingham Forest). Well, Sir Alex Ferguson, too, if you prefer.

' If Roy had just kept his gob shut ... Roy just wouldn't be Roy'

Before I get all sad and nerdish on you describing all the 70-71 stars in full, let me just say - this is a great book. I don't mean great like 'Doctor Zhivago' great, (watch the series of that on the telly now, it's easier to follow...) Or Great Briton, Sir Winston Churchill, Nobel Prize for literature, great. I mean, killing time on the bog, ignoring the excesses of the children's behaviour, filling the hour that the family intellectual insists on watching 'Doctor Zhivago' - great.

It gives the rip roaring tale of a talented, but small, boy's rise through the youth ranks in Ireland to the (old) English First Division, and beyond to European Cup multi-Premiership and Treble winning success, with setbacks that are personally terrible for the hero, but mega-money paper selling headlines for the tabloids.

You might think that if Roy had just kept his gob shut he would have taken part in the 2002 World Cup Finals, but in truth 1) he'd have never got out of Irish football in the first place, 2) we wouldn't be reading his book, and 3) Roy just wouldn't be Roy. (Hooray for that idea say a few Leeds fans and Alfe Harlaand's Mum and Dad at the back !)

'Ian Storey-Moore becomes his local pub landlord !'

But now for the nerdy bit.Roy very nearly missed out on the highest level of football altogether. Though without any doubt talented, he was looking like he had missed his chance till Nottingham Forest scout Noel McCabe spotted him, and brought him to England at nearly 19 years of age. Once at the club, reserve team manager, Archie Gemmill was none to, erm, keen to play him in a side that included his son, Scot. Then out of the blue, he was promoted virtually untried into the first team squad by Brian Clough himself.

The Forest side of that time was run by a host of 70-71 stars, as well as Brian and Archie, there was the coach Liam O'Kane, and Chief Scout, Alan Hill. And soon after moving into permanent residence, Ian Storey-Moore becomes his local pub landlord !

The role of Brian Clough in his career has never been forgotten by Roy, who in spite of Brian's other failings, is ultimately given the best of tributes. After one mistake on the pitch Brian punched him to the floor, but Roy brushes this aside saying that he knows the sort of pressure Clough was under at the time.

'Cloughie .... was a person who's opinion Roy respected.'

Roy clearly believes that Brian handled him in the only way that allowed him to stay at the club and develop into the top class player he becomes. Somewhat unconventionally, Cloughie sanctioned him going home to Dublin for several days at the time. But ultimately, here was a person who's opinion Roy respected.

' Brian Clough dealt in detail, facts, specific incidents, and invariably he got it right. Playing for him was demanding. I loved it because no less than else my instinctive reaction was, Not me boss'. Brian Clough and Stuart Pearce helped me shed that habit. I lived and learned in that hard school'.

But this was a time of Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest's decline, and Roy Keane was in the ascendent. He had to move, but showed something between loyalty and a good business head by staying on during Frank Clark's early reign before moving on to Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson.

The move was not without incident itself. It seems Roy had agreed in all but signature to sign for Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn Rovers. Sir Alex nipped in as soon as he heard that the ink had not left the pen. Roy paints an amusing picture of a seething and revengeful Kenny making desperate and angry phonecalls over the coming weeks.

So to Manchester United, well I'll leave that to the Man U fans to read and gloat over. But all the respect that Roy holds for Brian Clough you could multiply tenfold for his respect for Sir Alex Ferguson. Roy needed Sir Alex to dig him out of messes of his own making, and Roy pays him back with loyalty and performance on the pitch, what more can you say.

'Roy calls his footballing nation to take themselves seriously'

Unlike his attitude towards Jack Charlton the Irish manager. The controversy that opens the book and Roy's flight home from the World Cup clearly has its origins in his attitude towards Big Jack. Roy hated the Big Jack myth and legend- and to Roy, Mick McCarthy was the continuation of all that Jack represented.

Roy believes that Jack takes all the credit for what was in fact the players' glory. Big Jack had one game plan. Kick it to the front line. Any variation was quashed by Jack without debate. Then in After Dinner speeches, Jack would ridicule the Irish in stories of happy go lucky muddling along, that the Irish themselves seemed to want to buy into.

Wether or not it is straight forward anti-English feeling, which would in itself be fair enough, or a demand to accept that the footballing power of the Irish was no longer a young pup, but the fully grown animal, it is hard to say. But the message is clear... Big Jack amateurism out - Irish football supremecy in ! Roy calls his footballing nation to take themselves seriously and belive in themselves being one of the top counties in the World.

Though Mick McCarthy got the tongue lashing itself, and he may not have been the person who deserved it, one has a feeling that Roy's made his point and it has been listened to and understood. McCarthy's now gone, will Roy return.

'I would recommend this to any (adult !) football fan'

Incidentally, my edition was a Ted Smart special. 7 quid from the book people that come to your work place. If you can avoid the near 18 pound cover-price, I would recommend this to any (adult !) football fan. Don't get it for young children, as it's littered with ugly and unnecessary 'f' words that stand out like a 'sh*t' in a Parental Guidance' film.

And I always thought the Irish word was feck.

See more November 2002 news at the following ...

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