Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

[Stuttgart88]

Excuse my misspelling of Vieira's name above, by the way.

Sony made the same mistake when they named a TV after him.

[DannyInvincible]

Overall it was a good show - although at times i thought it was called "Keane & Ferguson - Best of enimies" as it seemed a bit keane central imo and too much of alex fergusons book was brought into it, it was meant to be about 2 of the greatest club captains of a generation and their individual and team battles with each other.

I think it was always going to be that way. Keane is the much more defiant, contentious and opinionated personality of the two (himself and Vieira), which is great for unearthing further source material and boosting subsequent ratings. He's not only unafraid of offending, he actively goes out of his way to be the principled and contrary hard-man.

Wasnt sure about some of roys picks for his best team - some of his picks seemed more like he was picking them because they also felt out with ferguson rather than picking them for their ability

Who would you have dropped and who would you have replaced them with? I thought it a pretty strong team, even if it was very personality-driven. That's not to imply that mentality isn't just as crucial to success in football as technical ability, of course. Nevertheless, you could probably argue that Gary Neville, Scholes and Giggs might have been deserving of places over Parker, Ince and Ronaldo. Do you sense Keane's estimation of former team-mates might have fallen as a result of their maintaining of loyalty to Fergie until their retirement?

[Professor K]

I thought it was quite good. I don't know why they had Keane rapping over 'Still Dre' for ages though, none of it even rhymed.

[DannyInvincible]

The RTÉ Panel discuss the Keane-Vieira documentary:

I think it's interesting they point out that whilst the "sophisticated" Vieira was motivated by the positive forces of hope, belief, passion and heart, Keane was driven by much darker forces; hatred and fear.

[geysir]

Brady says that Keane went out of his way to say so many bad things about Ferguson.
For a start, I'd say the documentary program was obviously edited and edited in such a way to try and fit in Keane's comments about Ferguson and questions were edited out.
Another issue is that the program needed a good selling point to catch world attention, what better selling point than the exclusive on Keane replying to Ferguson's book. In that context, Brady's comment was idiotic. This was a documentary probably planned for 60 minutes and I'd speculate that it went to the 90 minute mark (incl adverts) specifically to give Keane the floor to reply to Ferguson's book.
One part of the documentary was Keane Vieira the other part was Keane Ferguson and it wasn't edited well, Keane's comments about Ferguson didn't fit in well with the Keane Vieira bit. It was like a crude cut and paste job.
Brady thought Keane was wrong to say what he said, but did Brady also think Ferguson was wrong? if not, he didn't say so.
As it stands, Brady either believes that Ferguson made fair comment or that Keane has little or no right to reply in turn.
Not that I care about that particular war of words between Keane and Ferguson. Keane was well compensated when Man U terminated his contract and he didn't have 2 years left in him as a player, he played for Celtic for a few months and that was it.

Dunphy's liver is either taxed with dealing with excess alcohol or he's entering into a a permanent slurred liverish existence, not unlike Shane McGowan.

[The Fly]

Who would you have dropped and who would you have replaced them with? I thought it a pretty strong team, even if it was very personality-driven. That's not to imply that mentality isn't just as crucial to success in football as technical ability, of course. Nevertheless, you could probably argue that Gary Neville, Scholes and Giggs might have been deserving of places over Parker, Ince and Ronaldo.

The only member of that trio that I would've definitely included is Scholes. Although Ince was a very good player and is, in some respects, a kind of forgotten man in United's history, I think most would agree that Scholes was superior and would add that bit extra to Keane's selection.

If Gary Neville is to be included it is simply down to his longevity as he certainly wasn't a great player in my view. Good, but not great. In relation to Paul Parker he may, as Roy said, feel hard done by. He must have squirmed when Keane and Vieira were going over the tunnel incident - "What got to me was you went for Gary!...Gary!... that's like going after the weakest link." The expression on Keane's face when he said Gary was priceless.

The exclusion of Giggs may have raised most eyebrows given the extraordinary length of his career and the amount of honours he has received, but with some consideration I have to say that I wouldn't have included him either. Keane was charged with selecting the best players he played with at United not the players who made the greatest contributions during his time there, so in that respect Ronaldo has to be included. Then one has to decide whether to put him on the right; where played a lot of the time for United, or on the left; his best and most deadly position. You have to go for the latter in my view, which means including Beckham on the right.

I would also add that although I have certain problems with Beckham and the status he has garnered for himself; primarily because it bears little relation to his abilities as a player, I will say that he did, in my estimation, achieve a higher, and more prolonged, peak at United than Giggs ever did. I think it is often forgotten how sporadic Giggs' form was at times. Whilst his status as one United's most legendary servants is not in doubt, I always felt that he was never a truly great player.

[The Fly]

Sony made the same mistake when they named a TV after him.

You mean Panasonic.

Although come to think of it, his middle name is Bravian.

[tricky_colour]

Sony made the same mistake when they named a TV after him.

Actually I think it was a Panasonic Vieira, they also had another model called the Panasonic Keane, which was more versatile than the Vieira but it kept blowing fuses

[Fixer82]

Jesus O'Herlihy would put years on ya. 'He is a good man!!' Is that cos he's from Cork Bill?

[Crosby87]

Mick with a few comments about Saipan:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2526739/Mick-McCarthy-stands-call-send-Roy-Keane-home-2002-World-Cup.html

[Kingdom]

Just wondering about something the past while, and O'Neill's press conference yesterday had me asking the same question. He mentions going to Norwich v Swansea to watch Wes, but Wes doesn't start so obviously it's a blow, but he'd never complain about it being a wasted journey.

That irritates the hell out of me. In any given EPL match, you've probably the guts of 5/6 full internationals on show, and there is bound to be one or two that possibly will come up against Ireland over the course of the next two years.

Is it unreasonable of me to think that the National Football team has some sort of dossier on all of the countries in our Continent? That we won't just wait for the draw to be made in February and then start scouting sides out?

Surely he's bound to have a certain amount of scouting done on opposition players too. Michu is too obvious an example from Swansea, so what about Ashley Williams if we draw Wales. Trying to spot little weakness' that can be exploited such as his lack of concentration, or poor turning, ponderous on the ball etc. Or Vonk - what are his traits, double touch on a backpass, fondness for distribution.

If there is this kind of detail then when the draw is made, and if we were to draw Slovenia as a random one, O'Neill can turn to Delaney and say "I've scouted Slovenia and some of their players, they have an unusual style in that they play with such-and-such and I'd like a friendly against Hungary again because they have similar characteristics" and then it's done.

Am I alone thinking like that?

[Grafter]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/international/2013/1222/494410-oneill-to-give-youth-a-chance/

Martin talking about maybe surprising us come March with his selection of younger players...

Am I the only one that droans when I see mention of names like Noble and Redmond yet again! FYI they're committed
Englishmen everybody MOVE ON!

In terms of surprises there's very little surprises when it comes to Ireland.... these
young players don't just appear out of a hat - so who are we talking about here that have impressed him recently??? Jack Grealish? Shane Duffy? Curtis Davies? David McGoldrick??????

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

What with O'Shea, Delaney and Dunne's advancing ages and the fact that Richard Keogh isn't good enough at this level, it would be prudent to call up Duffy. He didn't look out of place in his brief spell in the Premiership and he's getting plaudits at Yeovil. He is physically very impressive and not afraid to take on responsibility and organise.

Sean Murray is doing well at Watford and Joe Mason is another possible.

I agree that this nonsense over Curtis Davies, Mark Noble and Nathan Redmond has to stop. None of them are a vast improvement on the options that we already have.

[Crosby87]

Ger Crossley?

[Charlie Darwin]

the fact that Richard Keogh isn't good enough at this level

Hang on, hang on. When did this happen?