Vieira living rent free in his head.
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Roy Keane at Nottingham Forest: Untold stories … - The Athletic
It is just gone 6pm in the away dressing room at Anfield. Brian Clough is about to spring a major surprise not only on Liverpool but also on his own Nottingham Forest squad.
In the process, he will kick-start the career of a wiry young Irishman, just turned 19, who will go on to become one of the most heralded players of his generation, then a straight-talking coach, manager and, more recently, an even more vocal pundit.
On that Tuesday evening — August 28, 1990 — few people had heard the name of Roy Maurice Keane. But that would soon change.
“The gaffer would regularly get one of the young lads to put a tracksuit on and come on the team bus with us. It was a way to give them a taste of things,” Forest’s right-back Brian Laws that night tells The Athletic.
“Nobody knew who he was. I had never spoken to Roy. He had not even trained with the first team. He was very shy, very quiet.
“But he pushed the skips (of kit and other gear) into Anfield, he helped to lay the shirts out and I remember being in the dressing room. It was maybe 80 minutes before kick-off and the gaffer says, ‘Roy, put that No 7 shirt on. I want to see what it looks like on you’.
“The rest of us are all laughing, thinking that the gaffer is just pulling his leg. Roy puts it on and Clough says to him, ‘You look a million dollars. In fact, do you know what? You look so good, you are playing’.
“We are laughing even more. But Clough isn’t. He’s deadly serious. You could see the colour drain out of Roy’s cheeks.
“‘You will be playing right wing’, says Clough, before looking over to me and adding, ‘You, look after him’. I’m thinking, ‘Look after who? Fuck me, I am up against John Barnes and I have to look after this young kid as well. My god…’.
“I just tried to give him a few reassuring words. ‘Stay calm, do the simple things and we will get through it’. I am trying to stay calm myself. As we warmed up, he did not look out of place but I am still thinking, ‘Shit, I am going to be wide open here, against one of the best wingers in the country. He’s (Barnes) going to tear us to bits’.
“Within five minutes of the game, Roy had trampled on Barnes; he had stood on him. He booted him and then simply told him, ‘Fuck off’ when he tried to complain.
“I had no reason to worry, he was fantastic. He wasn’t a winger, you could see that, but he had so much energy and was completely fearless. He would throw himself into tackles and he did not give a shit who the opposition were.
“I did not have to look after him. He looked after me. All the Liverpool players were looking at him as if to say, ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’. He would just snarl.”
From his Forest debut at 19 on, Keane took no prisoners on the pitch (Photo: Steve Etherington/EMPICS via Getty Images)
Clough was never afraid to give opportunity where he felt it was deserved. In the case of Keane, he had made his mind up after seeing the kid in action for Forest’s reserves the day before.
“Nobody would do that now, would they? Watch a young lad in the reserves and decide to throw him in at Liverpool?” says Laws. “It was incredible. He came from nowhere and he never looked back. I feel honoured to have been a part of Roy’s first game because it was the start of something special.”
Keane had arrived that summer in a £47,000 move from Cobh Ramblers. He initially found the move to Nottingham difficult and he would be allowed frequent trips back to Cork, to help him overcome his homesickness. But after that 2-0 defeat at Liverpool, his career was on a steep upward trajectory.
“He was not the biggest kid, but he came from a family of boxers. While he was this wiry young lad and didn’t look the strongest, the truth was a bit different,” former Forest defender Steve Chettle tells The Athletic. “We did not know who he was. But you could see straight away that he had something about him. There were no airs and graces about him. I don’t think he feared, or even respected, anyone because of their reputation. He wanted to make an impression of his own. He did not stand on ceremony, he got on with it.”
When he was 16 years old, Keane had written to every club in England to ask for a trial, with no success. Two years later, Forest scout Noel McCabe spotted Keane and urged the club to bring the lad over.
Once in the Midlands, Keane needed every ounce of his battling spirit as he fought for a chance in the centre of Clough’s midfield, where then-England international Steve Hodge and the highly regarded Garry Parker were among the fierce competition.
But Keane made 49 appearances in all competitions in that 1990-91 debut season, scoring 11 goals, and at times being picked ahead of Hodge. He scored two of his goals on their FA Cup run as Forest battled their way to the final, where they were cruelly beaten 2-1 by Tottenham Hotspur thanks to an own goal from Des Walker in extra time.
“He had a big, broad smile on his face and this strong accent… but he was just a fighter. He had the kind of attitude that was always going to take him a long way,” says Laws. “He had this will to win. He grew and grew in confidence and, once Cloughie put him in central midfield, he got better and better.
“Roy would train as he played — he would smash people. He had a bit of grit about him. In fact, I think he would have eaten a bit of grit to get where he wanted.
“He played at a tempo that we had never played at. We had a slow build-up, we would suck teams in and try to hurt them on the counter. But he was explosive from day one. He became a leader, even at a young age, because he never dropped his standards. He would not allow one player in the dressing room to drop their standards either. He was a manager’s dream and a player’s nightmare.”
Clough was the master of getting the best out of players; at spotting their strengths and making the most of them, rather than focusing on what they could not do. But, in Keane’s case, what he could not do didn’t amount to much.
“The coaching we had was minimal at best. We did not get coached, really. But he had this natural desire to be the best he could be,” says Chettle. “The rate at which he developed was massive.
“Keane was never shy about voicing his opinion. Even if it was a game of five-a-side, he wanted to win it and he expected the same from you. He demanded it. He could play up front, he could play on the wing, he was obviously fantastic in midfield and he was a strong, robust defender. He played in the centre of defence, frequently alongside Nigel Clough (the manager’s England international son), when we were having a bad time with injuries.
“He was similar to Frank Lampard in the way he could glide past players. He just wanted to get on the ball and get at the opposition.
“Stuart (Pearce), Des (Walker), Nigel (Clough), Steve (Hodge)… they had all played for England and you had to stand tall in that company. When I was a kid in 1985 and you walked in the dressing room, there was Ian Bowyer, Paul Hart, Garry Birtles, John Robertson — it was a tough place. It was more mellow by the time Roy was there. There were still some big players, but they were all pretty quiet, aside from Stuart, who was the noisy one, with his music and his personality.
“But I think Roy would have held his own in any company.”
In Keane’s first senior game at the City Ground that September, he made such a positive impression that he was given a standing ovation when he was substituted in a 3-1 win over Southampton. The following season, Forest returned to Wembley, this time beaten 1-0 by Manchester United in the League Cup final. Keane’s performance in the semi-final second leg against Spurs — when he headed the extra-time winner — is regarded by many as one of the best individual displays by a Forest player in the modern era.
Keane scored a vital 1991-92 League Cup semi-final goal for Forest against Spurs (Photo: Dale Cherry/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
The 1992-93 season saw Keane stand out as easily the best player in the side as both Forest and, sadly, Clough became a shadow of their former selves, sliding towards what became an inevitable relegation and an unfitting way to mark a managerial great’s retirement.
Keane’s star was very much on the rise, however, with Manchester United paying a then-British record fee of £3.75 million to sign him that summer — hijacking Blackburn Rovers’s efforts to land the Irishman themselves — after he had made 154 appearances for Forest over three years, scoring 33 goals.
Keane revealed recently his preparation for that first-team debut at Anfield had been far from ideal. The night before he had gone out and had “six or seven pints”.
In his defence, the 19-year-old had absolutely no idea his big chance was coming when he agreed to join his team-mates for a post-match drink or seven following that fateful reserve game.
But in Nottingham, there were soon almost as many stories circulating about Keane’s exploits off the pitch as there were on it. He was a well-known face in some of the city’s pubs and nightclubs.
Larry Lloyd, a European Cup winner with Forest, barred him from the Stage Door pub, of which he was the landlord, following a particularly raucous Christmas party. “He was jumping up and down on the tables, shouting his mouth off and acting the fool. I had to pull him down by the coat,” said Lloyd. Keane is also said to have had a somewhat fractious relationship with the bouncers at the Black Orchid, one of the city’s famous nightclubs of the era.
These nights out were also the catalyst for one of two major fall-outs with Clough, who had once given Keane a fist to the chops for making a mistake that led to John Salako scoring for Crystal Palace, helping them secure a replay in the FA Cup. “Don’t pass the ball back to the keeper,” Clough bellowed in the dressing room, after leaving Keane sprawled on the floor.
The other occasion saw Clough waiting patiently in a hotel lobby, ready to greet Keane (and several team-mates) after they had breached a curfew during a training trip on the island of Jersey. Keane was also said to have got involved in a row with another drinker.
“Roy was getting a bit cocky; he came back a little bit chirpy. Cloughie was in the foyer of the hotel, waiting,” says Laws. “He wanted to bring him down a peg or two. So he gave him a punch and then sent him home. To be fair to Roy, he took it. He didn’t fight back. He respected him, it was like his dad had given him a bit of a hiding. He stepped out of line, went too far and got himself a clip around the ear for it. I think he understood that he deserved it.”
“He was just a young lad, doing what young lads do. He had come over from Ireland to a big city, with a lot of bright lights, a lot of nice bars and a lot of potential distractions for a young man,” adds Chettle. “I was not in his social circle and part of me was pleased that I was not… because I am not sure I would have kept up.
“But he is not the character that people believe him to be. He did enjoy a night out but the rise from this young lad who turned up out of nowhere to being such an important, integral player in the Forest side was meteoric. He would not have done that without the right character.
“People talk about how he keeps himself to himself, but you do not make a huge amount of friends in football. I am sure Roy has a circle of friends — even if I think his dog is probably his best mate if you look at his Instagram. But he was a very, very good team-mate.”
Another former Forest colleague, Craig Armstrong, tells a story that shows that other side to Keane.
As another young man a long way from home, Armstrong — or Spuggy as he is known, because of his ginger hair, his roots in the north east and the subsequent similarities to a character in Byker Grove, the 1990s kids’ TV show that gave the world Ant and Dec — was helped by Keane when he needed it most.
“After I had left the Forest club digs, I went to lodge with somebody,” Armstrong tells The Athletic. “But my landlady fell ill and I needed somewhere to live all of a sudden. Roy had just moved to Manchester United and still had a really nice house in Scarrington (a village west of Nottingham).
“I asked Roy if I would be able to move in there for a little while. It was only meant to be short term but I ended up being there for three months, and I never paid him a penny.
“He would come back down from Manchester and we would go out for a few drinks at the Wheatsheaf, which was a pub that (another former Forest player) Ian Storey-Moore owned.
“I think he had just scored the winner at Maine Road in the Manchester derby and he just wanted to have a drink like a normal bloke. Lots of people would want to talk to him.
“But the perception that there is of him; the persona people think he has — he was never like that. He was a top guy.”
Armstrong was to cross paths with Keane again recently.
“It must have been 15 or 20 years later and I was working for the FA, doing some scouting and went to watch Stoke Under-23s play. I was in a lounge before the game and I see him. I go over to say hello: ‘Roy?’. He fixes me with that look that says, ‘Who the fuck are you?’. But after a moment it was, ‘Spuggy! How long has it been?!’.
“He pauses, seems deep in thought, and drops out, ‘You still owe me some money for rent… I’ll give you my bank details’. He was only joking. I think.”
In the Forest dressing room, there was still a sense of nervous anticipation when it was confirmed that Keane was to return to the City Ground in January 2019.
By that point, Keane had forged a reputation for being just as no-nonsense off the pitch as he was on it. Spells managing Sunderland and Ipswich Town had painted a picture of a demanding character who retained the same high standards as those he had set himself as a player.
Nobody wanted to be fixed with that glowering look of disapproval.
Having forged a bond with Martin O’Neill during five years as his assistant with the Republic of Ireland, when O’Neill agreed in January 2019 to come back to the club where he had also made his name as a player, Keane was swift to follow.
With Ireland, the release of Keane’s second autobiography was seen by some as a distraction, because it came shortly before a vital Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland. At Forest, O’Neill and Keane agreed that it would be better if he tried to stay out of the spotlight.
But while he maintained a low profile, behind the scenes, Keane was precisely the character many would have expected. Though as Michael Dawson testifies, that was not necessarily a bad thing.
“Yes, he was intimidating… but I had a really good relationship with him,” the experienced defender tells The Athletic. “I always got on with him.
“He is just very, very honest. He will be straight with you. But if you give your all he would never have any issue with him. I have seen him lose it, but it was only for good reason.
“I always look at the young lads coming through. We have had Joe (Worrall), Ryan (Yates), Alex (Mighten)… they all came through the ranks and had a great presence about them in the way they work and train. They were taught to have the right attitude and mentality. That is all Roy expected of you as well.
Keane briefly return to Forest in 2019 as assistant to fellow club legend O’Neill (Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
“You can have a bad game now and then; people will forgive you (for that) if you train every day with the kind of mentality and approach that they do. If you think that you are better than you are and have a bad game, people will not accept it. That is what Roy is like. He will tell you what he thinks. But if you give everything you have, you will never have a problem with him.”
Senior players were not spared Keane’s straight-talking. Jack Colback, who had played for him at Ipswich, received a stern dressing down, as did goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon.
Another more obscure victim of Keane’s was a computer printer — the assistant manager became so annoyed by the chattering noise it made in his office that he demanded it was moved to another room.
Equally, when a young cancer victim was given a tour around the training ground, Keane could not do enough for him and went out of his way to ensure he had a memorable experience.
In his short time back at Forest, the players had little time to become frustrated by Keane’s demanding nature. Although Keane’s actions did, inadvertently, have a negative impact on boss O’Neill.
When Keane decided to walk away from Forest ahead of the 2019-20 season, it prompted a sense of panic at the Championship club.
The Forest hierarchy were concerned that O’Neill had too little structure around him, with Seamus McDonagh, the goalkeeping coach, his only remaining senior staff member. It prompted Forest to quiz senior players for their views of O’Neill — which ended with the former European Cup winner being sacked just two days into pre-season training.
Keane wanted to be a manager again in his own right. But clubs have been wary of offering him that opportunity.
That unwavering nature that served him so well — helping him win 16 major trophies, including seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League with United — had been more of a hindrance in management, despite his decent CV.
Sunderland were in the Championship’s relegation zone when he was appointed in late August 2006 — but, just as had been the case in his playing days at Forest, his impact was immediate. They finished that season being promoted as champions. They also stayed up in the 2007-08 Premier League. But when Keane walked away the next December with Sunderland in the top flight’s bottom three, the players are said to have celebrated, having become tired of his abrupt, no-nonsense style.
He could not bring the same level of Championship success to Ipswich, after joining them the following April and was sacked in January 2011 with the club three points above the relegation places.
“He took the approach he had to playing into management. On some occasions, it worked for him. Other times it didn’t,” says Laws. “Once you have played for Manchester United, the standards they set are so high. I don’t think he would tolerate anyone dropping below that. That has been good for a lot of players who have worked under him, but it has been a nightmare for others.”
Armstrong believes his former team-mate still has more to offer the game.
“I am a huge Sunderland fan and what he did there was immense. The problem he has is that the game has evolved. Players have more power now,” says Armstrong. “I also think that chairmen and owners are probably a bit wary of appointing Roy. But I would employ him, because he has the character and desire to want to succeed.
“When he and Martin were at Forest, they were at every single youth team game, every single under-23 fixture. Roy would never have a problem with speaking to young players. He would give them advice and encouragement. He wants to give the next generation the kind of opportunity Clough gave him.
“I would have loved to have played for him. I could see a bit of Clough in him. You can feel his will to win. He just wants to succeed in everything he does.”
The behind-closed-doors games at the City Ground last year saw a familiar face in attendance (Photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
For now, Keane’s only link with football is as a pundit, for Sky Sports during the domestic season and as part of the ITV coverage of Euro 2020. His straight-talking nature has provided some of the high points of the tournament viewing.
Keane questioned why Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell would spend so much time with Chelsea colleague Billy Gilmour, following their England side’s draw with his Scotland team, which led to the English pair having to isolate for COVID-19 reasons. He insisted he would never spend more than five minutes talking to anyone.
“He is the pantomime villain, isn’t he?” says Laws. “He just says what he thinks. It is not like he has changed.
“I really enjoy watching him. Although I do sit there half the time just wondering to myself how he can grow a beard so quickly. He can be almost clean-shaven one week and then have a full, thick beard the next. But it is just Roy. He would not do anything without a sense of purpose, including growing a beard.”
It seems a world away from that softly-spoken teenager in Anfield’s away dressing room on a late-summer evening in 1990.
“It makes me laugh to see how he has gone from this quiet young lad to being this character who has an opinion on everything,” says Chettle. “I think some of it is tongue in cheek; I think he intentionally tries to wind people up.
“But he’ll happily talk things out, for as long as it takes, until he is proven to be right. Which is probably something he picked up off the gaffer (Clough), isn’t it?”
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Sounds like someone’s trying to get back into management, The Athletic do their fair share of these sort of pieces.
The Athletic is excellent tbf.
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They are. But every now and then you get these sort of plants, which can be interesting in their own rights.
Who is Keane’s agent?
Didn’t that Kennedy fella die?
The penultimate sentence reminds me of somebody here, now who was it ?
Ah yes……
Happy 50th Birthday Roy.
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What size bottles and what drink ??
Plenty of lads would be well able to drop 11 bottles of Budweiser an hour
I listened to a bit of it - That’s some headline to take from a throw away comment.
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Rags mate, rags
TNH.
That is 3.5 litres in an hour.
Keane giving it big licks but I bet he failed the mention Gary Breen’s buddy slapping him round the place
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My uncle has always maintained that “if you can’t drink 10 pints in an hour you should forget about it”. 
I’m assuming you’d need to drink a pint or two while standing in front of a urinal.
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