Keane back in the spotlight with TV documentary

IT WAS a union no one could have imagined. Four years after the infamous Saipan bust-up prior to the 2002 World Cup Roy Keane and Niall Quinn joined forces at Sunderland.

It was the start of a rollercoaster ride. Ultimately, though, it was a union that wasn’t destined to last, and three years and 100 games later, having spent £70m (e75m) and led Sunderland to the Premier League and just about kept them there, a frustrated Keane left the arena just as dramatically as he had entered it.

Tonight a compelling TV3 documentary — Roy Keane — The Sunderland Story — takes an in-depth look at Keane’s reign at Wearside.

Featuring interviews with Keane’s former Republic of Ireland colleagues Paul McGrath, John Aldridge and Jason McAteer, former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr, Drumaville investor Charlie Chawke, Sunderland legend Micky Horswill and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the documentary looks at Keane’s time at the club from his dramatic arrival and early success to his sensational departure.

Throughout his controversial career the former Manchester United player has always elicited divided opinions from people. This documentary continues that particular trend.

Was he a success? Was he a failure? Ultimately it depends on who you listen to.

McAteer is particularly damning of Keane’s performance as manager, and claims Keane’s ego and flawed transfer policy brought about his downfall.

Commenting on Keane’s departure, McAteer is particular critical, stating: ‘‘The thing about Roy Keane is if its not good for Roy Keane, Roy Keane will walk away. He felt he was the man to control (El-Hadji) Diouf, (Pascal) Chimbonda, (Djibril) Cisse, he was the man to control these wild characters. I think you can to an extent, but when you’ve got maybe two or three of them you make the job so much harder for yourself, and I felt he certainly made a bed for himself by signing those players. In the end he felt he had taken the club as far as he could take it and people weren’t meeting Roy Keane’s expectations.’’

Kerr, however, takes a very different view, and says Keane’s decision to quit was ‘‘in many ways a very honourable thing to do. Many managers hang in and hope they can rescue a season as it goes on, and I firmly believe that Sunderland under Roy Keane could still have had a very good season.’’

Kerr also defends Keane’s lavish spending, saying: ‘‘He (Keane) helped to generate those resources by the whole surge of interest around Sunderland and I’m sure there was a vast improvement in their income on the commercial side, on the gate side, and the numbers coming into the game, so he was entitled to spend some of that money himself.’’

McGrath says Keane, ultimately, was a victim of his own success. ‘‘When he took over Sunderland, he brought them to a new height. The problem then is the expectation is you’ve got to bring them to another height, and if you slip in any way supporters are very quick to judge you.”

For Chawke, Keane’s independent streak and inability to delegate led to his downfall. ‘He’s his own man and he does he’s own thing,’’ Chawke says, ‘‘he makes his own decisions, and maybe in his first management job he should have accepted help from people around him. I don’t think he did accept a lot of that. I was gutted when I heard he was gone.’’

The documentary also looks at how the ‘Keane effect’ attracted a huge amount — estimated by the club to be 1,400 per game — of Irish fans to the Stadium of Light. ‘‘The hotels were full, the restaurants were full, there was Irish everywhere in Sunderland, from people going over in twos and fours, to groups of 30 and 40. The Irish basically invaded Sunderland,’’ Pádraig Roche from Marathon Sport recalls.

Horswill is critical of Keane’s man-management skills and criticism of Sunderland fans after he was booed after the Black Cats narrowly avoided defeat to Northampton Town in the Carling Cup, but says the Corkman initially did a great job, almost too good.

‘‘He took us from the bottom of the Championship and got us promotion,’’ he recalls. ‘‘Maybe it was a little too early for everyone at the club.

“We were a Championship club at the time, Championship players, and it was Roy’s first year, so maybe it was a little early for everybody, but he got us in there, so at the beginning he did an absolutely fantastic job for the club.’’

* Roy Keane — The Sunderland Story airs on TV3 at 9pm tonight.