May 24 – Roy vs Mick
WHILE the 2002 World Cup is remembered by England fans for Beckham’s penalty against Argentina and David Seaman’s errant positioning in their final game against Brazil, for the Irish, one man’s name looms large over the whole tournament, and he didn’t even play in it.
It was today in 2002 that Roy Keane flew home from the Irish training camp in the far east after falling out with manager Mick McCarthy, goalkeeping coach Packie Bonner, senior players including Niall Quinn, Doris the tea lady and Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.
The whole brauhaha kicked off when Keane’s less than complimentary views about his manager and the squad’s preparation for the competition were made public. By now looking to pick a fight, and without Alf-Inge Haaland anywhere in sight, Keane started a row with Packie Bonner and then tells McCarthy he wants to go home.
Despite McCarthy’s dislike of Keane he was now faced with the prospect of his captain and only true world-class player leaving the team in the lurch just days before their first match. He tries to persuade his player to stay, unsuccessfully at first, but Keane then decides he will stay and all is rosy.
With perfect timing, an interview with Keane was then published in the Irish Times detailing his criticisms of the team’s World Cup preparations, and a clear-the-air talk between the manager and his loose-cannon captain descended into a slanging match.
Roy is alleged to have said: “Mick, you’re a liar…you’re a f*cking w*nker. I didn’t rate you as a player, I don’t rate you as a manager, and I don’t rate you as a person. You’re a f*cking w*nker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country and you’re not even Irish you English c***! You can stick it up your bollocks.”
McCarthy was left with little choice but to send Keane home and called a press conference to announce it. “I cannot and will not tolerate being spoken to with that level of abuse being thrown at me so I sent him home,” he said, with some justification if the quote above is anything like accurate.
After flying home the media had a field day with the will he/won’t he go back to Japan saga. Keane, typically, was unrepentant. He said: “I don’t feel an ounce of guilt about my part in what has happened. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I don’t think I should be apologising. If anything, I believe the apologies are for others to apologise to me.”
He did agree with his former manager on one point though: “I don’t regret what I said, but at the same time I agree Mick had to send me home. A player cannot speak to a manager like that and continue to work under him. Of that charge, I am guilty.”
In the end he did not rejoin the squad and spent the World Cup walking his dogs if all that Sky Sports News footage is to be believed. Meanwhile Ireland did fairly well without him, going out to Spain on penalties after getting to the last 16.
We’ll leave you with some footage of Ireland’s World Cup campaign and don’t forget to come back tomorrow when we’ll be remembering more pre-World Cup problems, this time for England.
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