A year ago Roy Keane was a virgin manager and now he is a novice manager.
Sunderland’s promotion has made his career very interesting.
Roy is 36 today.
One of the men at the middle of this Irish success story is Michael Kennedy, the Arsenal-supporting lawyer who has looked after many Irish players over the last 20 years. It was Kennedy who brought Quinn and Keane together at the County Kildare house of one of the investors of the Drumaville consortium. These guys are eight Irishmen, one Englishman.
Back in 2002, Keane quit Mick McCarthy’s World Cup team after Quinn had tried to negotiate a truce between star and manager. The angry Keane made a typically scathing comment on Quinn’s peace-making efforts. He called the big man “Mother Theresa” .
Four years later, when Sunderland were going nowhere, Kennedy arranged that meeting, which was an informal social evening, not an interview. Before the socialising started, Keane and Quinn, who had not spoken since 2002, met privately in a room of that house. Neither has revealed what was said at that private meeting.
Keane, the only great footballer to play for Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson, soon took over at the Stadium Of Light from Quinn, who was the caretaker manager.
The new manager left the local media gobsmacked on day one, when a reporter said, “Roy, we all know that great players don’t make great managers….”
“That’s fine, I was never a great player”
“But you were!” squealed the reporters.
“What, like Pele? Maradona?” replied Roy.
Sunderland moved impressively to automatic promotion, the Stadium of Light was rocking with 40,000 fans, and two small Irish airlines began flying supporters to Sunderland for games.
This whole Irish millionaires /Niall Quinn/Roy Keane/Setanta thing is a fascinating phenomenon to me because, living between Kilburn and County Cricklewood, I’m close to the London-Irish and have seen many expats go back as their home country has prospered. Thousands of Irish families don’t send their sons over to work on the building sites any more, they send them to uni.
Football fans in Sunderland are gagging for a successful team and the Irish really love their sporting heroes. The club can appeal to a local community and also a national and global diaspora. It’s a market with massive commercial potential.
That’s why, for me, the most interesting club in the Premiership is Sunderland. And that’s why the first day fixture that jumped out was Sunderland v Spurs. When I saw that I thought : Spurs could get a hiding there !
The other games this weekend will be routine, with few shocks.
Arsenal will outclass Fulham and beat them by at least 2-0. Manchester United will beat Reading on Sunday and Rooney will score. But they need Gary Neville back to shout at Rio and keep him awake. Chelsea won’t be so deadly while Drogba is injured. Rafa is under a lot of pressure and could get the sack. Sven will keep Man City up.
And the new Sky season kicks off at noon with Sunderland v Spurs.
I’m not interested in all this because my dad was Irish. I’m not interested because I used to see the humble Quinny, after he had played for Arsenal, going home on the tube with his father. I’m not interested because big Niall is a diamond geezer who gave away all his testimonial money to charity. And I’m not interested because they’ve just signed a superb goalkeeper, Craig Gordon, for £9 million.
I’m interested because I wonder whether Roy Keane was born to manage. And because he makes me laugh. That’s fine, I was never a great player.
Or this little anecdote : Roy’s wife Theresa knows Henning Berg’s wife, Line. In Berg’s autobiography there’s a bit where Berg’s author and Henning go to meet Keane, who talks about what Berg contributed to Manchester United as a no-nonsense defender who could mark and concentrate.
Henning gets up from the couch at the other end of the room. He walks towards the door to the stands. Line comes by, says hi to Roy and asks him to send her regards to Theresa.
“I hear you’ve got number five on the way,” she says.
Keane shrugs and breaks into a huge smile.
“What can I do? My wife can’t resist me.”
THIS MORNING Jan said she thought the phone was working again. To test it at 8.45a.m. I called my brother Paddy in Devon and he said, “I’ve shaved one half of my face.”
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