Keane defiant over Vieira row
Keane defiant over Vieira row
by Mark Kendall - created on 22 Feb 2005
Roy Keane has lifted the lid on his recent tunnel bust-up with Patrick Vieira and insists he has no regrets about his behaviour during the incident.
The Manchester United skipper clashed with his Arsenal counterpart during The Red Devils' recent 4-2 win at Highbury.
The pair were involved in a furious exchange as the two teams lined up in the tunnel before kick-off, and had to be separated by match referee Graham Poll.
Keane claims his aggression was fuelled by both physical and verbal attacks from Vieira on Gary Neville, and he feels that he was right to confront the France international.
"I came into the dressing room after the warm-up and heard that Vieira had gone after Gary Neville already," the Irishman explained.
"I'm usually first out in the tunnel, but I had a problem with my shorts and I was maybe fourth or fifth out and by the time I got down I saw Vieira getting right into Gary Neville again. I mean physically as well now. I don't mean verbally.
"I'd had enough of Vieira's behaviour and I would do what I did again tomorrow if I had to.
"It takes two to tango. Maybe Gary deserves to be chased up a tunnel every now and then - there would be a queue for him, probably. But you have to draw a line eventually.
"I just said `That's it, I'm not having this'. That sort of behaviour I won't tolerate."
Keane also took a swipe at Vieira over his decision to represent France at international level and not his native Senegal.
Vieira is fiercely proud of his Senegalese heritage and devotes much of his time away from the pitch to help people in the African country and promote football there.
But, in a move sure to irk the Gunners star, Keane has now questioned why Vieira chose not to play for his country of birth on the international stage.
"It makes me laugh, players going on about how they are saving this country and that country," he continued. "But when they have the opportunity to play? well, it's probably none of my business."
Interseting Roy having a go about players not representing their country - Roy would never dream of not playing for Ireland.........
Yeah they are all taken from this interview, not sure if it was put up before
From the Times on Saturday
SOCCER: Three years after the fallout from their now famous Saipan interview, Tom Humphries finds out what's been happening in the world of Roy Keane.
"There's a mirror which has
seen me for the last time."
- Jorge Luis Borges
'Thirty three years old now," says Roy Keane. "You know, eventually the penny had to drop." For a man who has spent the morning conversing first with Dustin the Turkey and then with Bertie the Taoiseach, he is in curiously serene humour. It's his day off and the intensity has been reset to back-burner levels. He'll smile on all who smile. He looks comfortable in his skin. He has a two-day start on a beard. He's happy to talk.
He loves this time of the year. All the froth and faff has been blown away and it's down to business. The weekend brings the clamour of the FA Cup and Everton. If he doesn't still have boyish dreams about that competition, well, a win-or-walk game against spicy opposition engages him still. Next week it's AC Milan and the Holy Grail of the Champions League. The pace keeps on right through Ireland's tour of duty in Tel Aviv next month and down the home stretch of the Premiership season.
He's enjoying it all, partaking with the odd mix of passion and detachment which only a veteran of many wars can muster. He's inside the skin of the game, right near its beating heart, but he's outside, too, his hand holding the pulse, his head cocked, looking at the stopwatch, knowing that soon it'll be time for him to go.
And the penny that dropped? It fell slowly like a handkerchief floating from a tall building on a still summer day, but there was beauty in that simple thing. He has learned. There have been hurly-burly occasions lately when Roy Keane has played furiously but without being cautioned. Full-blooded games, the sort of thunderous shemozzles wherein the referee would once have booked him beforehand to save himself the trouble of stopping the game in the first 10 minutes. Red-mist occasions which were short odds to become red-card occasions.
Arsenal at Highbury, for instance. An effulgent evening when he appeared least enraged while he was on the field with mayhem all around him. Before and after he glowed with a radiant anger, but on the grass he was a clenched presence amid whooping comrades and wild enemies.
"I think," he says, "that I was a bit more controlled. The odd foul? Okay, but I wasn't booked. Then again, 33 years old now, eventually the penny has to drop. There would have been a little bit of needle against Arsenal. I'm not patting myself on the back for not getting booked or sent off or anything. The game itself, though, if you analyse it I was quite poor in it."
You have to take his word for that. Football is something you don't want to argue with Roy Keane about. People said nice things after his Arsenal performance but he felt that he'd like to have been sharper. It's swings and roundabouts, though. When people patted him on the back he just thought of the afternoons when it was agreed that he hadn't done much and was in irrevocable decline. Often when those verdicts were issued he knew he'd done a good job for the team.
"It's stuff you keep to yourself, though," he says, "I leave it up to the experts to decide anyway." Which seems too meek and generous a resolution. So he adds with a smile. "The so-called experts."
We so-called experts and so-called Keanologists gorged on the Arsenal business. So many bones and entrails to pick over. It was a landmark occasion for the Premiership, the two great vanquished powers butting heads gloriously while nouveau riche Chelsea checked the locks.
Keane defined the difference between the sides, and if he lacked sharpness in his play his appetite was as edgy as ever. In extremis the hungriest man wins the whole loaf.
Arsenal could blame only themselves. They drew his wrath upon themselves like careless boys hacking away at a lintel.
It is amusing in hindsight to look at the little j-peg of Highbury tunnel action which appears on internet sites now. The milling confusion in the whitewashed tunnel broken by Keane's piercing rage zoning in on Patrick Vieira. Instantly he lances Vieira's soft underbelly.
Vieira had granted a slightly self-congratulatory Sunday newspaper interview a week previously in which he spoke of his work for children in his native Senegal. In the tunnel, Keane punctured him cruelly and quickly, finishing a brief but vintage harangue with a screeched question. Why, if Vieira loves Senegal so much, doesn't he just go and play for them? The swaddled French international emerges from the scrum looking quite spooked. Dennis Bergkamp comes after him to belatedly offer shelter from the storm. In the days since there's probably been a million ripostes which Patrick Vieira wishes he'd given but . . .
As for Keane? It amazes him how the sports media industry spins things. He grins and recollects the night. Perhaps spin isn't the word he's looking for.
"Okay, I mean maybe there was nothing to spin about what they saw in the tunnel, but I just don't like that behaviour. They drew the line during the warm-up. I came into the dressing-room after the warm-up and heard that Vieira had gone after Gary Neville already. You understand that fellas are up for it before a game, or even on the pitch that they'll lose the head, I've done that myself over the years - but when Gary told me. Bloody hell.
"So, then I'm usually first out in the tunnel, but I had a problem with my shorts and I was maybe fourth or fifth out and by the time I got down I saw Vieira getting right into Gary Neville again. I mean physically as well now. I don't mean verbally.
"I said 'That's it. I'm not having this'. I'd do it again tomorrow. Enough is enough. I couldn't accept it. Still wouldn't. I've played against players over the years and you need to earn each other's respect. That sort of behaviour, I wouldn't tolerate it."
He continues animatedly. He's played against many teams over the years. So many seasons, so many crumbled empires. He mentions the bitterness and intensity that existed with Leeds, with Liverpool with Manchester City. Even Arsenal. "We played Arsenal in 1999, and we beat them in the Cup semi-final and there was a lot of rivalry with those teams. We beat them at Villa Park and two or three of them, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, I remember, came into our dressing-room and wished us the best. It must have been hard for them but there was respect there. There was rivalry, but there was also an element of respect. I know it takes two to tango, I understand that, and maybe Gary Neville deserves to be chased up a tunnel every now and then - there'd be a queue for him probably - but I think you have to draw a line eventually."
He chuckles over the Senegal insult. Roy Keane is still the enemy of the game's Charlie Big Potato merchants.
"It makes me laugh, players going on about how they are saving this country and saving that country, but when they have the opportunity to play . . . well, it's probably none of my business." And he retires the topic with a wolfish grin.
His own retirement may be less straightforward. He seemed to announce his expiry date recently, but Alex Ferguson (no model in such things) took him by the arm and reminded him he wasn't yet a libertine. While indentured to Old Trafford the big decisions belong to the guy with the knighthood.
"He pulled me over next day and said, 'Roy, I'll be the one to decide when you retire'. It made me laugh, I'd always thought of myself as being in control of where I'm heading."
His Taggartness felt that if in a year's time Keane had more to offer, well, then United would be interested in extracting that. Keane knows that dropping down a division or two doesn't appeal to him. Some coaching work does appeal, though. He'll wait and let the world unfold.
He can accept some serendipity now. This sweet Indian summer of his career seemed unlikely not so long ago during his post-Saipan exile. His mood was dark and his body was crumbling. His hips were militantly protesting through everygame.
Now at 33, he has reasserted himself as the most necessary midfielder in the Premiership. A jackpot of pennies dropped somewhere along the way. He rests well now. He eats like an anorexic sparrow. When a Caesar salad without sauce is brought to his hotel room mid-interview he thanks the women gladly and then looks at the meal as if it were laden with deep-fried Mars bars.
He played against Manchester City on Sunday, and now, on Monday afternoon, he has the souvenirs. One dead leg, one sore ankle, a buffeted body and a sense of deep fatigue. His recovery for the game with Everton starts now.
His week: yoga on Tuesday. Booked into a hotel on Wednesday for a hot stones massage. Thursday and more yoga. He'll train Wednesday and Thursday. Rest Friday.
Still, his body will be jaded.
"The club have helped me with that, especially when there's three games in a week. I got a knock recently and missed the Portugal game for Ireland. That's common sense, it's nothing about being clever or picky. It's using my head. Hopefully when I come for the Israel match I'll be as well prepared and fresh as anybody. Nowadays I have to look ahead like that."
His hip has become happily compliant. Last season he endured constant aches and pains, and while a surgeon did as much as he could with his knifework the verdict was that the wear and tear was critical and irreversible.
