He then talks about the last week, the 4-1 defeat at Middlesbrough on the Saturday afternoon, his return from Dubai, his performance as pundit for the MUTV analysis of the game on Monday, and the ructions that followed. The club opted not to broadcast Keane?s comments, which they felt were too critical of teammates. A leaked and inaccurate account of what he said was printed in several newspapers and United was portrayed as a club tearing itself apart.
?I took that defeat personal, then there was the video that was leaked and everything snowballed. That defeat still hurts me; not that we got beaten 4-1, but the way we got beaten. I didn?t even bloody play, which was even more frustrating, because part of me is saying, ?Roy, stay out of it, it?s not your business,? but I?m a player in that dressing room, and this affected the dressing room.
?I was seeing players doing stuff off the pitch, had the feeling it was affecting them, and it came to a head with that defeat. That feeling, I?ll take it to the grave. And yes, I nailed certain people. This was a match I watched in a pub in Dubai. I had a foot injury, the club said take a break. I walked out at 3-1, I couldn?t take any more. I took the publicity with a pinch of salt, senior figures at the club should have done the same. Everyone got sucked into it, when they should have known better. I think, in the end, the manager was swayed by certain people he works with.?
A number of people at Old Trafford believe that at a difficult meeting involving players and coaches following the public airing of Keane?s criticism of some teammates, there was some sharp swordplay between the then skipper and assistant coach, Carlos Queiroz. The coach accused Keane of disloyalty, a brave accusation at the best of times. To use an expression he likes, he then nailed Queiroz by reminding him it was he who ran off to coach Real Madrid and only came back to United when things didn?t work out in Spain. The feeling is that Queiroz went to Ferguson and made it ?him or me?. Since Keane?s time was almost up, it was him.
One United player, asked if he had spoken to his captain in the aftermath of his departure, complained he didn?t have his number. I ask Keane if this wasn?t unusual? ?My brother works in a factory, I doubt if all his workmates have his number. When I was at Celtic, some of the players said, ?Can I have your number?? I said, ?No, I don?t want you annoying me with banter.?
?By the time I left there, two guys had my number. But it?s not something you?re going to give away. One or two of the United lads ? actually, seven ? have my number. People are going to be surprised by this, so I will name them for you. Ruud ? obviously he?s gone now, Ollie [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer], Gary [Neville], Butty [Nicky Butt] ? he?s gone too, Shaysie [John O?Shea], Quinton [Fortune] and Giggsy.?
Not long after his exit, Keane went back to United?s training ground to return his company car. ?The players gave me a lot of respect. I said goodbye and there were no hard feelings.
?United wanted me to have my testimonial, and showed their class as a club in the way they did everything for me. That brought closure. By the end of my time, a lot of the players didn?t like me. I?m convinced of that. Possibly they wouldn?t admit it, but there?s no doubt in my mind, the players had just had enough of me; they were just ready for a change. Ready for a different voice in the changing room. I was losing that influence.?
How is his relationship with Alex Ferguson?
?I wouldn?t have a clue. He?s a manager I played under, he taught me a lot, gave me a chance, and hopefully I repaid that with some decent performances. Then it came to an end.?
Affection? ?No, I wouldn?t say affection. Respect. The bottom line is, he?d always look at the bigger picture. Whatever he does, and maybe he?s upset a few people, he will always do what he thinks is best for the club. I?ll give him that.?
He says you were the most influential player in the club?s history. ?I don?t agree. I?ve never believed one individual can have that much influence on a team. People used to say this about Eric [Cantona], but I didn?t get sucked into that. Eric was a major influence at the club, but I saw him as the final piece in the jigsaw. He wouldn?t have worked if the other pieces weren?t in place. You can?t look to one player, a Rooney or whoever. You can?t have other players thinking, ?Okay, Wayne, go and do it for us.? Different people have different jobs, some more glamorous than others.?
So how good is Rooney? ?For me, the jury?s still out on Wayne. I think he?s got a hell of a lot to do. Wayne has achieved nothing ? would probably say that himself. I would judge players over a few years, rather than one or two. He?s got potential, like I?ve got potential to be a good manager. Potential is one thing, doing it is another. I feel this season could be a good one for him.?
Will the scrutiny hurt him; diminish him? ?A lot of players bring it on themselves, they and the people who are advising them. When I see young players doing deals for five books, I scratch my head. I did a book when I was 31, after a few years of half-decent success. A book deal worth 2 or 3m is not going to alter the lifestyle of a player who could earn 50 to 100m, but it can be a distraction.?
He moves effortlessly into anti-celebrity mode; for here was the man who preferred not to attend the celebrity wedding of his friend David Beckham, who now says he would rather be back drinking cider behind the school wall than sell photographs of his wife and children to OK! or Hello! magazines. As a young manager, he knows it is something he will have to confront.
?They say managers are losing control over players, but there are times when you can put your foot down. Players get away with things now they wouldn?t have been allowed to do a few years ago. My answer would be no. And it would annoy me if one of my players did a shoot for a celebrity magazine. Can you do anything about it? First time, maybe it happens before you can stop it, but there can be consequences, something to make them think twice before doing it again.
Though they are different people, he got on well with Beckham. ?Becks was always going to go down the celebrity road once he got married. Not in a million years could I live that lifestyle, but I?m sure he couldn?t live mine. You give people the freedom to live it their way, but first time you see it?s affecting their football, you put your foot down. There?s loads of people who get sucked in: Jonny Wilkinson and Michael Owen always spring to mind. The day after Owen broke his foot, he?s doing an article and I?m thinking, ?Work on your recovery, man. Do that article next week, next month, next year.? Wilkinson, the same. When you get an injury, the early days are vital. I?ve done it both ways, where I?ve had an injury and been out on the town that night, and later on, when I focused properly. They?re kidding themselves, but that?s the name of the game these days.?
He talks about the future and his decision to become a manager. At first he wasn?t sure. The football life wasn?t so wonderful at the end. For all his resignation, he didn?t plan to leave United by the back door. The affair with Glasgow Celtic didn?t do it for him. Parts of the experience he enjoyed, and it surprised him how much he enjoyed the Celtic dressing room. Better than United?s? ?Less nasty?, he says. ?In every changing room, players get ripped. People have taken the piss out of me; ripped me for not drinking, ripped for doing yoga, ripped for my diets, for my clothes, for my Irishness. But you give it back.
?When I say the Celtic dressing room was better, this is not a criticism of the United lads. I was as bad as any of them. We ripped people for the wrong things; the car, the house, the way you dressed. In Scotland it was more old-fashioned. I enjoyed that. Maybe you don?t get the bull up there that you get in the Premiership.?
He learnt, too, about living out of a suitcase, without a family. He spent three months in an Edinburgh hotel. Cinema in the afternoon, long, anonymous walks in the evening. ?Here I was, a 34-year-old man going to the pictures on his own in the afternoon. It made me think about when I came to England first, the 18-year-old in Nottingham who went to the pictures in the afternoon. Here I was, 16 years on, back at the pictures. My life had come full circle.?
While in that Edinburgh hotel, travelling to and from training, missing his Manchester-based family, he thought about Sebastian Veron, his one-time Argentinian teammate at United. ?Celtic couldn?t have done enough for me, but it was a lonely life and I wish now I had been a bit easier on some of the foreign lads who came to United. I always thought, ?You?re on the pitch now, do it.? I regret that now. I was very hard on Seba, and I was wrong. When he came, I was expecting miracles. When they didn?t happen, I was always homing in on him, and I now know it takes time.? He wanted to play his best for Celtic but he didn?t; his body wasn?t up to it and, without his family, it was tough.
Through the traumas, Theresa and their five children have been his anchor. ?The bad times, that?s when you need a family. I read a book recently about the loss of identity sportsmen feel when they stop. ?Roy Keane, Manchester United.? ?Roy Keane, Ireland.? ?Roy Keane, Glasgow Celtic.? There?s always something after your name. With your family, you have an identity that?s separate from that.?
The decision to become the manager of Sunderland was taken while with his family in the Algarve. They would not have discouraged him: they know he is a better father, an easier husband, when spending his intensity on football. He thinks he will be a good manager but he reminds you; so does everyone starting out. The key for him is he has to find out. Two lines from Julius Caesar could have been written for him: ?Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.?
And so we talk about management. He has watched Jose Mourinho?s arrival into the Premiership, the way he has taken on Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. ?Mourinho?s got something. A blind man could see that. And he has the edge at the moment. He plays games and I think they can have a big effect on his team and on the opposition. Do you remember when Chelsea played United at Stamford Bridge, end of last season, and there?s two minutes to go in injury time, and he gets up, walks up to where the United lads are, and he?s shaking Alex Ferguson?s hand and the game is still going on? Two years ago no one would?ve done that to Alex Ferguson.
?The manager would not have liked it. But Mourinho is saying, ?The game is over, the league is over, 3-0 to us.? But Alex Ferguson would have taken that on board. That?s what good managers thrive on, that kind of slight. People love to criticise Mourinho, but I like watching Chelsea. They?re well organised; they know their jobs.?
That last part came easily to Keane. Perhaps his last great performance in a United shirt came on that February evening in Highbury last year. Facing down Patrick Vieira in the tunnel before the kickoff and then dominating the game.
He remembers it clearly: ?Arsenal started it that night with Gary [Neville]. Vieira had a go at Gary. Gary?s not really a fighter.? So, what did you say to him? ?The Sunday before, there was a two-page spread about Vieira in The Sunday Times, and he was bragging about all the good things he was doing in Senegal. He?s building this academy, saving kids from the street. It irritated me. Self-praise is no praise. And so I said to him, ?If you?re that worried about Senegal, why didn?t you f***ing play for them?? [Born in Senegal, Vieira moved to France and played for his adopted country.]
?A week or so later he said I didn?t understand the history of what he?d come through. And he?s right about that, and I was probably wrong.?
We talk about the World Cup in Germany. He went to one of the games and felt it was a wasted trip. As for England, he knew before they went there: ?No chance.? Too few world-class players. ?I like Gerrard, Lampard and Wayne, but they still haven?t done it on a world stage, and then there?s all this bull around the team.? He didn?t find the Wags amusing. ?What kind of person wants to be pictured going out for a meal? They were annoying me, and they?re not even my wife.?
He then talks about the sending-off of Zinedine Zidane in the final. ?I could understand what he did 100%. I could sense his frustration: he?d just missed a header before that, then a pass went astray; you could see he was getting a bit tired, and all you need is a flippin? comment at that moment. That?s what used to happen to me.
?You see, at that moment it doesn?t matter who is watching, doesn?t matter that it?s a World Cup final. It could be a park field. That moment comes and it is ?F*** you, f*** everybody,? and bang! Zidane?s got that streak in him; if he didn?t, would he have been a brilliant player?
?I think of the last game I played for Celtic. I gave away one or two passes. Two stray, silly passes, and it eats away at me. All you need then is someone to say something.? He doesn?t want to return to his collisions with the Norwegian Alf-Inge Haaland, but this train of thought drives him there: ?I remember at Leeds, when I?d done my knee [in a lunge at Haaland]. He irritated me, that?s all it was. If a certain person says it at the wrong moment, then ?bad day?. At Old Trafford, when Haaland was playing for City, he had been mouthing off in the media, slagging off the club. I took that personal. We?d lost the Wednesday before to Bayern Munich in the European Cup, and it was a case of ?Sod it, just sod it.??
He thinks about what he has just said, realising there is a part of him that we will never fully understand, and he begins to laugh.
?Anyway, they?re my excuses,? he says.
?Very genuine excuses.?