November 2 – Watch Out Alfie, Keano’s Back

“I’d waited long enough. I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you c***. And don’t ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries.”

And so it was proved that the pen was mightier than the sword, as Roy Keane’s autobiography got him in a spot of bother with the FA, who invoked a five match ban that ended today in 2002 following his x-rated challenge on Alf-Inge Haaland in the 2001 Manchester derby.

One of English football’s most vicious feuds started back in 1997 when Roy Keane’s Manchester United had a date at Elland Road against their cross-Pennine rivals Leeds United. Never a clash for the faint-hearted, Keane had spent much of the game tussling with Haaland and with five minutes remaining lunged at the Norwegian international. Keane’s studs were caught in the ground and he ended up knackering his cruciate ligament. Underestimating Keane’s ability to hold grudges, Haaland told him to stop faking it.

This was a bad move, as Keane spent the next nine months simmering on the sideline, watching his team-mates throw away the title to Arsenal. He would later claim that this period saved his career as he realised he “wasn’t leading the right lifestyle. I wasn’t preparing properly and when I was out I had to step back and take a look at where I was going wrong.” Well, he would say that now, being a respectable Premier League manager, but at the time you knew he was biding his time until he met Haaland on the pitch again.

Keane kept Haaland waiting until April 2001 before he got his revenge. At the end of a fiery Manchester derby Keane went in almost neck-high on the midfielder who was now at City. Keane didn’t wait around for ref David Elleray to show him a red card and headed straight for the dressing room.

When Keane’s autobiography was released the next year it wasn’t the usual type of footballer biography that Joey Barton hates so much, as ghost-writer Eamon Dunphy admitted using “artistic licence” over the incident.

The comments quickly bought about a charge of bringing the game into disrepute from the FA and a five match ban and record £150,000 fine. Haaland mulled over legal proceedings, but nothing came of it even though he had to hang up his boots in July 2003 as his rehabilitation failed. We’d give the contest to Keane on points.

See both of Keano’s moments of madness below and head over here tomorrow for another formed United man falling on hard times.