How Good Was Roy Keane, Really?

[Music] if you've been a fan of football for a while you're probably familiar with what i like to call the attitude era of the premier league from the early 90s to roughly the mid-2000s english football was filled to the brim with hard man type players and although many players may have fit the hard man image perhaps none were quite as successful as roy keane despite the fact that nowadays he's more commonly seen keeping praise on dennis irwin my god dennis imagine if dennis was playing now he was once one of the most feared and talented midfielders in all of england but it's been some time since he's retired and some people may need a refresher so with that being said how good was roy keane really what's up everyone and welcome to the channel in this video we're going to be taking a brief look into the highs and lows of the career of the iconic roy keane originally from ireland roy keane was born into a working class family in 1971 he joined his first youth football club rockmont at the age of 10 and even back then he was known as a promising energetic young player during his early years he was a lot smaller than most other boys his age but nonetheless got into the odd school fight or two and as you can imagine due to his size these fights rarely ended well for him keane's response to this treatment however was joining a local boxing gym and he was actually quite good to be fair winning all competitive matches that he was a part of this was probably the first sign of the intense fighting spirit that he would later show the world to quote a family friend of kings that he knew when he was younger what you have to understand about roy is that in those early days he had to try harder than anyone else to make up for what some felt was a lack of physical presence that determination has never left him despite his early successes in boxing football was his true love he would later stop boxing altogether to pursue football more seriously after playing for rockmont for roughly nine years he went on to join another local irish team cove ramblers in 1989. however he had his mindset on playing football professionally in england and applied to as many english football clubs as he possibly could according to his former manager at kobe ramblers keane wrote to a staggering 92 different clubs requesting a trial the only club that even responded was nazim forest and after a trial keane transferred to nazim forest for a fee of 47 000 pounds in 1990. this roughly translates to 108 000 pounds in today's currency at nottingham forest he only went from strength to strength making 114 appearances for them in a three-year period he even showed his eye for goal scoring 22 goals in that same period as a box-to-box midfielder now at the time of signing for nightingale forest keen was already known as being a tireless runner and possessing great technique however it was here that keane truly began to develop into the gritty no-nonsense box-to-box midfielder that we're all familiar with to give you an idea of the environment that he was playing in keane's previously stated that he was once punched in the face by his coach at the time brian cloth after making a mistake that led to a gold however he was too grateful for the opportunity that brian cloth and knighting and forest had given them to play in england to bear any ill world towards them earlier on when i referred to this era of football as an attitude era i really wasn't joking after an array of stellar performances for nottingham keane began attracting some serious attention from a lot of the top teams in the world reportedly interest came from clubs such as barcelona real madrid and blackburn rovers who were quite a big deal back then to be fair however as we all know manchester united ended up being his final destination as the club signed him for 3.7 million pounds in 1993 the british transfer record at the time this translates to roughly 8.6 million pounds in today's currency at the time he moved united had just won the premier league title and were incredibly strong with players such as eric cantona paul ince mark hughes and brian robson being very well established however various injuries to the then 36 year old brian robson meant that keane got ample playing time in his first season with the club and he quickly repaid the faith that united had in him by helping them to the second ever premier league title in 1994. over the next three years even more success came his way as united picked up two more premier league titles and keem firmly established himself as a leader in the united midfield in 1997 keane took on the role of manchester united captain after eric cantona announced his shock retirement for some players being handed the captain sees far too much of a burden on them and it can often lead to them buckling under the pressure and losing their form this clearly was not the case for roy keane his fierce competitive streak and aggression were as intense as ever unfortunately shortly after receiving the captaincy keane was sidelined due to an untimely cruciate ligament injury and a match between manchester united and leeds united king received this injury after attempting a tackle on alf-ing holland to add insult to injury holland even believed that keems feigning his injury and berated him while he was rolling on the floor in pain now just a side note for all of you that may not be familiar with how the story ends this is not the end between keane and holland keene was out for the remainder of the 97-98 season where united missed out on the title at the hands of arsenal however he was right back in action just in time for the 98-99 season and his timing could not have been better as this was the most successful singular season in the history of manchester united football club and united were in fine form this season with consistently eye-catching performances from each player and it shouldn't surprise you that keane played a starring role here one of the standout fixtures of the season came against juventus in the champions league semi-final second leg after a 1-1 draw at old trafford in the first leg united travelled to italy for the reverse fixture and unfortunately the first 11 minutes of that match could not have gone worse for the english side as juventus quickly took a two no lead however what followed from keane was in my opinion probably one of the greatest individual performances of all time and certainly the best individual performance of his entire career with the captain's contribution keane scored the first of three goals for united that would secure a 3-2 win over juventus and earned a man of match award in the process apart from the goals keane's tireless running leadership and overall intensity was cited as the main reason behind the comeback adding on to this keane massively outperformed the star-studded juventus midfield which consisted of players such as edgar davids didier deschamps and zinedine zidane the latter of which was the holder of the ballon d'or at the time sir alex ferguson was quick to keep praise on keane for this performance stating it was one of the most emphatic displays of selflessness i have ever seen on a football field ferguson even went on to say that he believed king would rather die of exhaustion than lose sadly keane received a yellow card for a farlands gun in that same match which ruled him out for the final nonetheless united went on to win the champions league against bayern munich in that final and this completed a famous tribble which included the champions league the fa cup and the premier league to this day man united are still the only english club to ever achieve this feat in one season keane's performances throughout the 98-99 season earned him a fifth place finish in the ballon d'or rankings for the year of 1999. in the years that followed the triple victory united continued their success winning two more premier league titles in the 99 2000 and the 2000 2001 season with keane continuing his captaincy in the 2000 2001 season keane saw himself in a little bit of controversy in the match between man united and man city keene went on to commit a horrendous tackle on a play that would earn him a straight rate card and a combined eight match ban the player that he committed the foul on none other than olf inger harland several people suggest that keane did the side of revenge for the first tackle three years before this this suspicion was only confirmed three years later after the release of keane's autobiography in 2003. in his book he essentially admitted to kicking out at holland on purpose now this is where things get interesting shortly after this tackle alf inge holland retired this fueled rumors that holland retired due to the keen tackle however this rumor was debunked after it had been revealed that holland had been carrying the injury that caused his retirement for several months before the tackle and that the keen tackle actually didn't affect it in any way moving on to the back end of keane's career and going forward to the preseason camp before the 2005-2006 premier league season reports from united came out that tension between ferguson and keane began to rise the two reportedly clashed over the quality of the training sessions as well as the coaching methods of then assistant manager carlos cueros after 12 and a half years with united and a rather public falling out with sir alex ferguson keane ended up leaving the club and transferring to celtic in november 2005. however he only went to spend half a season at the scottish club and announced his retirement all together from football on the 12th of june 2006. in his illustrious career keene won dozens upon dozens of awards however the most notable were undoubtedly seven premier league titles four fa cups and a champions league title not too shabby following on from this keane went straight into management over the years he's coached a wide variety of teams such as sunderland and ipswich town he's also been the assistant manager for teams such as the republic of ireland aston villa and nottingham forest unfortunately for keane he was never really able to recapture the sort of success that he enjoyed on the pitch as a player in his managerial career however fortunately for him and for us might i add he's quickly become one of the best additions to the sky sports punditry team i mean seeing his reactions to players that aren't 100 committed will always be hilarious i am flabbergasted i wouldn't even let him under boss after the match what a legend and that brings us to the end of the video i'd be interested to hear how you all raced roy keane's career and even further to that how much do you think keane would go for in today's transfer market if you enjoyed the video i'd appreciate if you left like but obviously no pressure cheers for watching and i'll catch you in the next one [Music]

Channel: Football Iconic

Views: 1,421,000

Keywords: Roy Keane, Manchester United, Football Iconic

Id: XKW_dmSvPk0

Length: 9min 31sec (571 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020