He walked out on his country.
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Snigger
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Incorrect.
He made a stand for his country. Sacrificing himself for the greater good of Irish football.
If we prepared properly we could have got to the semi finals of the tournament in 2002.
Instead the English rejects were happy with their few pints of Guinness and a few media events in D2s and the Camden exchange.
The little Englanders on here are happy to lose and jump around with one shoe on as opposed to actually compete and win like Roy Keane.
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Keane cost us that opportunity when he walked out on them on the cusp of the tournament. The players fought valiantly in his absence, qualified from a difficult group and really ought to have beaten Spain.
It’s often overlooked but it could be argued that Keane also cost us qualification for Euro 2004 with his refusal to commit. That was an eminently winnable tournament too. We had a better team on paper than the Greek team which won it out.
In correct.
The training facilities cost us that tournament aligned with the manager accusing the best player of faking injury.
Once McCarthy accused of him faking injury he had only one choice but to leave. Any proper player would have done the same.
But he did fake injury. He chickened out of a crunch 2nd leg in the intimidating environs of Tehran. I’ve done the research here and 2 days later he was playing at home to Leicester in the Premier League. Christ I’m apoplectic at that. McCarthy had every right to criticise him in that case.
It’s actually very sad. As a lad who wants to play every match going and is always fit and available I can’t wrap my head around Keane walking his dog around Manchester while his so-called comrades prepared for the task of facing then crack African outfit Cameroon.
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I was actually at speech and drama the Thursday of the 2nd leg in Iran so missed the game itself. That’s damning for Keane. Cuntish in fact. He played the full 90 minutes too. Injured🙄
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Keane is probably autistic in some way, he has zero social skills, how could anyone think the clown would make a good manager?
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Thank god this chump was still peeing down his leg during Saipan. Can you imagine the ‘debate’.
All wrong. They’re nothing crunch about being 2-0 up against Iran. The job was done and dusted. He hadn’t played a for a month before the first leg.
Made zero sense for him to be risked in the second leg. Utterly bizarre stuff.
That’s actually genuinely incredible when you see it laid out like that. Literally two days later and played the full 90 minutes. And im a fan of Keane. To miss that after the campaign he had put in defies explanation really. Why was he bothering playing at all if he was going to miss a game of that importance? It makes no sense on any level. Can anyone explain that outside of bruideann wumming for the last 24 hours?
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Most lads would train on hot coals to represent their country. Roy, much like most Irish supporters, cared more about an English association soccer team than his own country and people. I was aware he missed Tehran but wasn’t aware he cowardishly hid from a gigantic play-off just so he could face Muzzy Izzet a couple of days later.
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2-0 is far from done at any level. It was still delicately poised enough as the 1-0 defeat on the night indicated. Why would he miss that to play a run of the mill Premier League game against Leicester team who were relegated that year? 90 minutes, 2 days later. Reflects incredibly badly on him in retrospect.
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What started everything was Keane going talking to the press and naming names well before the now infamous bust up which happened a few days later.
Roy was in the Man Utd bubble at the time. Nothing mattered more. Id guess, if he knew things would finish the way they did at utd, he would have made some different decisions at different times in his career.
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Scandalous what he did there.
Because he’d hadn’t played for a month so agreed to play the first game and if was done which it was he wouldn’t play the second game.
You’d think memories of conceding late on in Macedonia or play-off defeats to Belgium and Turkey would have meant that he’d have been less complacent than that. I suppose winning a midfield battle against Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet was more important to him than qualifying for a first major tournament in 8 years with his country.
Man United were having a bit of a wobble at the time and I’d imagine Ferguson applied pressure on him not to play the 2nd leg. Shameful really.
Incorrect.
It was agreed with both managers if it was game over after the first leg which it was he wouldn’t travel.
Even at that it makes little sense. Whatever about missing a friendly or a run of the mill qualifier this was almost as crucial match as you’d see. We were obviously hot favourites to qualify but heading out there was a complete unknown quantity and Keane was by a mile our best and most experienced player. You’d imagine McCarthy was absolutely seething. Was there much criticism in the media?
Interesting to see where united even were in the league at that stage. They were off the back of three in a row. I was away in America at the time so don’t remember any of the ins and outs of it.