Wronged Roy must make Mick take him back
By Paul Doyle
I have decided, again, that I am right. I said it last week, more out of instinct that factual insight, that Roy Keane has been wronged. And more proof has emerged.
Yesterday, Jason McAteer complained in a newspaper column that Keane told him and the other players who were prepared to accept shoddy training facilities and general slapdashery, they were just "dead fish" who were happy to "go with the flow".
The glorious officials from the FAI rammed Roy's point home when, having left the Corkonian on his own in Saipan, they took the first class seats to Izumo, reverting to the ridiculous status quo that had prevailed until Keane publicly denounced it last year.
This is obscene. Is Ireland the only country in the world where it could happen? Men who accept this make what sort of players? Certainly not the sort that can cope without Roy Keane.
Cameroon, the team that will crush us in front of billions of viewers next Saturday, arrived in Japan five days late because of a dispute over bonuses. The whole squad stood up for what they believed to be right and they eventually got the respect they demanded.
That resilience, allied, of course, to power and skill, is why the Lions have proved indomitable in two successive African Nations Cups and one Olympic Games. It is why they have lost only once in their last 16 games, including away matches against France, Argentina, and England. It is why they will beat Ireland.
Do you remember how Ireland fared in Iran without the Irishman most likely to resist oppression? They lost.
Do you remember that in Nicosia last year, puny Cyprus were ready to topple us until Captain Keane almost literally shook his team-mates out of their stupor?
I fear for the Boys in Green over the coming weeks.
There is hope, of course. Reports are surfacing of a possible reconciliation between Roy and Mick. Admittedly, I'm treating these with the same seriousness I treat rumours that Elvis Presley is alive and well and selling scrap metal from a halting-site in Athlone. But then again, when you see the unholy horde of hacks currently camped outside Keane's Cheshire home, you realize Roy must be severely tempted to do anything he can to get back to Japan.
What we need, above all, is a visionary in the FAI (shame on ye who shout that's a synonym for 'chaste whore'!). Yes, someone who, to borrow the Association's earnest slogan, "cares about Irish football" to broker a deal between the two men, both of whom deserve to enjoy the World Cup.
Keane will have to apologise, not necessarily for speaking out or even for deploying "industrial" language, but certainly for some of the more virulent sentiments he's alleged to have expressed. I wouldn't imagine he'd have much trouble convincing his team-mates that some of what he said was merely borne of furious frustration. If he really did, for example, spit something along the lines of "if you weren't born in Ireland you're not Irish", then he would effectively be saying his own children have no right to call themselves Irish, something which I doubt he truly believes (there you have the reason why I believe him when he denies ever uttering that infamous "English c**t" line)
If he admits he was out of order, but for the right reasons, then he hammers the ball firmly back into Mick's court. And Mick would scrub the sparkle off his undeniable achievements if he failed to forgive. For the benefit of us all.
from ireland.com
