Keane: The Autobiography

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It now seems somewhat hypocritical for Keane to fall out with Irish players for not training when injured after making these comments in the second book. One thing is for certain is that as long as Keane is in the public eye controversy will follow him). The personality required to be an elite athlete is not always the same that is needed to qualify as a “good person.” Ruthlessness, stubbornness, ignoring pain, ignoring limits, intentionally breaking rules of decency——these traits are sometimes needed for tremendously successful athletes to become Legends. Thank Goodness we have the metaphorical realms of Sport and Art so that the most talented among us can work out these contradictions in a safe space, rather than have no other outlet and have to take out their aggression—and transgressions—elsewhere. With that, Ferguson and Keane were spirited through a side entrance at the stadium, the end of an extraordinary and gruelling day of evidence and deliberation. Roy Keane won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League trophy with Manchester United – not to mention the respect of virtually everyone he faced.

The book paints a picture of Keane as a hard-working, hard-drinking player who couldn’t always control his temper but always gave his all on the pitch. His tolerance for anything that didn’t meet his standards was incredibly low – yet slightly hypocritical when his own drinking had to be having a damaging impact on his own game. Ultimately Keane’s year out with a cruciate ligament injury combined with growing older helped to temper his drinking and the Roy we meet in the second book has become a health freak. The suspension is eased, from United's standpoint, by the fact that Keane is recovering from a knee injury and one of the five matches covered by the ban is a Worthington Cup tie with Leicester City on November 5.

Every team needs a player like Keane, someone who can control the game and dominate the tempo. Tactically and positionally he always got it right and is very good in one-on-one duels.” Peter Schmeichel

So I forgive the forthright Irishman for his contradictions in character. The professional athlete that we see on our televisions are as fictitious as any literary character, and thus I can judge Roy Keane as a character; and I’ve always liked characters in books or movies that have contradictions. Some examples of Keane’s Kontradictions include: Keano rarely fails to entertain and with a ghost outrider such as Roddy Doyle, we get a snappy, snapping tale,, with Keane putting the boot into those he considers deserving but also not sparing the rod on himself... Like the midfield dynamo in his prime, this story could run and run * RTE GUIDE *

Keane, who is close to resuming training, will also be absent for league matches against Manchester City, West Ham, Newcastle and Liverpool before a possible return against Arsenal on December 7. But the fact that the FA penalty does not cover European games means the 31-year-old Irish midfielder could play against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on November 13. I now much prefer the second book. Less distance from the subject, a much smoother read, and, as you say, a wiser, more reflective and more welcoming self-critical angle. Or maybe it’s because I’m a thirtysomething now and not an early twentysomething.

Keane's eminent co-writer, Booker Prize-winning Irish author Roddy Doyle, does a brilliant job. His gift for comedy and swearing, together with his wonderfully transparent style, not only captures his country man's voice but also adds some much-needed light and shade to the unforgiving business of being Roy Keane. It's not a sentence I expected to write but the account of Keane's triumphant first season at Sunderland is particularly uplifting -- Neil O'Sullivan * FINANCIAL TIMES * Somebody I met in Ireland had told me to tell him [Ferguson]: ‘You are not going to win this,’ Keane writes in his new autobiography, The Second Half. “I mentioned it to him. And I told him that I didn’t think it was good for the club, the manager in a legal dispute with shareholders. A character I found interesting was Ryan Giggs because I know of him playing soccer it was interesting to find out how much of a dagg he was like Roy with his good sence of homour. Engrossing... a book that is both an exercise in truth-telling and a piece of literary football writing -- Leo Robson * NEW STATESMAN * The choice of Doyle marks an acceleration in the ghostwriting arms race (next week: Sam Allardyce and George R R Martin) and ensures Keane's humanity – rather than the belligerence captured by Eamon Dunphy in Keane's 2002 book – is to the fore. JK Rowling has described Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors as her favourite book for his skill in inhabiting the life of abused wife Paula Spencer, a more than adequate preparation for the relatively straightforward contradictions of Ireland's most complex – and we use the term loosely – sports star.For a complete player, without a doubt Keano. Apart from the bad side he had, he was the complete midfield player for me. A genuine pleasure; it is a masterpiece of the genre and one that paints, in an entirely unintentional way, an extremely flattering portrait of the man ... Keane is not afraid to laugh at himself by telling stories against himself ... His thoughts on his players are humane, interesting, candid and never less than believable ... Keane's story is of a man, too, one who has had to look at football and life anew as a manager, and it is this added perspective that gives richness and humanity to the tale -- Mike Atherton * THE TIMES * Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971 in Mayfield, Cork) is a retired Irish footballer and the manager of English Championship club Ipswich Town. I won't name names, but most sporting biographies couldn't set an ashtray on fire, let alone a crowd. The best one I've read of late is Roy Keane's The Second Half, which is actually written by Roddy Doyle, of course; and this is why it's good. It's not just Keano himself that makes the book interesting; it's Doyle's writing * Philip Kerr, author of IF THE DEAD RISE NOT and JANUARY WIDOW *