Keane’s out of tune with the Irish psyche this time

There he goes again, getting stuck into the Irish psyche.

Different tournament, performing a different role, but it’s the same old Roy Keane banging the drum of standards.

Keane was not impressed with how the Irish team played in their 4-0 defeat to Spain on Thursday. The game was barely over, the supporters still keening loudly over Trevelyan and his goddamn corn, when Roy lashed out at Paddy and the way he might settle for second-best.

Sitting in the ITV studio, Roy declared: “I think the players, and even the supporters, they all have to change their mentality; it’s just nonsense from players speaking after the games about how great the supporters are,” he said.

“Listen, the supporters want to see the team doing a lot better and not giving daft goals away like that. I’m not too happy with all that nonsense. To praise the supporters for the sake of it… Let’s change that attitude towards Irish supporters.

“They want to see the team winning. Let’s not kid ourselves, we’re a small country, we’re up against it, but let’s not just go along for the sing-song every now and again.”

Was the warrior embarrassed by his countrymen and women in front of his English hosts? Would he have preferred if the supporters voiced rage and anger? Does he really interpret what occurred at the end of the game, when a defeated army burst into song, as a mentality that accepts second-best?

If so, he’s fallen badly out of touch with his native land.

Keane was particularly put out by the manner in which the team conceded what heregarded as soft goals. There may well have been mistakes in a game in which the team was run ragged. Any analysis of the performance, however, has to take into account the opposition.

Spain are currently the best team in the world. World champions, European champions, stuffed with the stars of Barcelona and Real Madrid. They are in a different league to most teams.

The Republic of Ireland has been the poorest team in Euro 2012. On paper, on the pitch.

That is not a reflection on the hunger, drive, or application of the players. Arguments can be had about the tactics employed by Giovanni Trapattoni, but his major achievement has been to bring a squad of limited talent to the finals of a major European tournament.

Anything above that would have been a bonus. On days when the gods were smiling and the opposition distracted, the Republic may well haveexcelled itself and carved out an unlikely result. Those days didn’t drop our way over the last week.

So the team’s weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed in a tournament that was a step up in quality from the qualifying rounds. Different class, as our footballing brethren are wont to say. Accusing the team of settling for second-best is cruel and inaccurate. If anything, they excelled themselves by merely getting to the finals.

As for the fans, respect and ruaille buaille have been the hallmarks of Irish supporters since the show first got on the road back in 1988. In the dying minutes of the game, the low growl of the Fields of Athenry welled up across the stands in Gdansk.

The sound was one part funereal, recognising that the dream had died a premature death, and two parts celebratory, saluting a team that had put down a lot of road, and provided moments of joy over the two years since it set out for Poland and Ukraine. That doesn’t mean accepting second-best. It means recognising effort and standing in solidarity at a time of crushing defeat.

Of course, there was also a more earthy reason behind the singing that Keane should have recognised. Other football fans sing as a cultural expression of supporting a football team. The Irish just love to sing, at birth, at death, at matches, in the bath, in victory or defeat.

Check out two clips on YouTube from Nov 2009 and June 2007 where Irish football fans attending the Stade de France join in the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, just before kick-off. They don’t know the words, but they sing it at a volume which drowns out the natives. That’s just the way it is, and Keane should be well aware of it.

Ten years ago he convulsed the country, made people sit up and take notice, as he lectured on the acceptance of low standards. He was right then, no question about it. He’s not right now. No question about that either.