Niall Quinn press conference - transcript

Ireland striker Niall Quinn today responded to the RTE interview given by Roy Keane.

Here is the transcript of the press conference held in Izumo today.

Quinn: I am here to explain the statement that you received from the players. At 7.30 this morning word filtered through to those of us who couldnft sleep that Mick had offered an olive branch to Roy.

By breakfast time when all the thoughts were racing through our heads, Mick called a meeting for 10.30. At that meeting Mick effectively ended any chance of Roy Keane appearing at the World Cup finals.

He left the meeting and asked us to have a chat amongst ourselves to see how we felt about it.

We were left with no alternative and all 22 of us voted unanimously to back him.

Unfortunately our statement was released too early it was meant to follow Mick’s press conference. The vote was unanimous. It was all 22 players and it was a very hard 10 minutes alone in the room - just the players.

There was no lobbying. Every single player was asked his opinion and we came out of the meeting with that statement.

Q: Was it a case of Mick or Roy?

NQ: I think when you speak to Mick you will see that we had no alternative. You will have to ask Mick the details, but you are not far away.

I shall give you the chain of events in the last 72 hours.

One of the younger players came to my room and said to me: How would you feel if Roy came back?

At that stage it had all calmed down after Saipan and I had been thinking the same thing myself. He said so had his room-mate.

I rang Michael Kennedy myself and discussed with him a way of getting Roy back out. I spoke to Michael on several occasions during the last few days.

It started off with Michael saying that Roy was very angry and I can understand that, as it was the most traumatic week of his life. I have no doubts that he sincerely feels he has done no wrong.

Having said that, and having stared at the ceiling every night without sleeping, and having listened to Michael who is a fabulous man, I felt there was a slight chance.

The next day we spoke about it and by the end of that day the players felt that there was a chance, if Roy could apologise. Michael was thrilled to hear this.

The next thing that happens is that Roy writes an article in a newspaper which knocked it back, but didn’t kill it. Michael told me Roy was coming around and to pursue it, and I did. I went to Mick McCarthy and told Mick that opportunities might arise whereby Roy might be able to come back ?

I tested Mick McCarthy behind the scenes. There were different stories going around that Roy was ready to apologise and a flight was booked for him, and we were getting very excited by that, and we heard he was going live on TV to apologise.

I tried to get Michael because I wanted to be sure, but he had left to be with Roy and I missed him.

We sat and waited and waited, it was unbearable waiting for the TV interview, and I went back and rang my wife after the interview to see what had happened.

She was unclear about how Roy had changed and I was probably ratty with her and wanted to know what he had said, but it was unclear. I went and walked around, waiting for morning to come and then I heard Mick had offered an olive branch and I got very excited.

But then a full transcript of the interview Roy did came over to Mick and by 10.30 the whole thing had fallen apart.

I know Roy has had serious goes at me in the newspapers and I don’t for one minute think he will ever change his opinion but if he ever does come round he only has to ask the man closest to him whether I am a coward or not.

I am devastated that Roy Keane is not here but let me tell you what it has been like for the last week. I am a senior player and I am drained, I am shattered. How do you think the young lads are.

The players, especially the younger ones, cannot take any more. It had to come to this and I am so devastated because we came so very close to getting Roy out here - he’ll never know that, he’ll never thank me.

It has just shattered us all. I am trying my hardest to draw a line under it and get the other players to concentrate on just football.

I can’t think properly why he didn’t apologise when it was so close to happening. I think Mick’s statement should have come out first and you would have seen that as players we had no alternative but to follow what Mick has said and will say to you. Once you have heard that you will see there is no way back.

The players and technical staff were left on their own and then the technical staff left after saying that Roy was totally wrong and they couldn’t forgive him. I asked then for the players to be left alone, just the 22 of us, and I asked every single player to have a say.

Every one of them I can tell you is devastated that Roy Keane is not coming, but the consensus of opinion was the structure of the Irish team had to come before Roy. And with heavy hearts we issued that statement - it wasn’t the easiest statement ever to make.

By 10.30 the whole picture had changed again, and you will slide into place when you talk to Mick later.

If Roy Keane had apologised on TV I am sure he would have been on his way to Japan now.

If an apology had come before 10.30 the players would have been delighted. Between him and Mick, you will have to ask Mick about that.

I don’t know at what stage Mick read the transcript but I do know it didn’t rest easy with him.

I worked very hard to get everybody to accept him back and at the start they weren’t throwing their hands up in the air.

But fair play to the lad who came in and said: Can we just think of the people at home first?

For that reason alone every player has to put aside his differences.

The lads are a bit shattered, there is no doubt about it. Luckily the game isn’t tomorrow.

That is why we are trying to draw a line under it now. Training funnily enough has been going really well and in fact probably too well.

We are clouting each other almost at times, and getting stuck in. There is frustration in our camp but hopefully today it will start to go away.

The word coming back from various sources was that there was a plane booked and that Roy was going to apologise on TV. I was under the impression that it had a wonderful chance of happening.

The people back in Ireland changed the players minds. The reaction and the realization of it - remember it was incredible stuff that Roy came out with and I am never going to tell anybody what he came out with, if somebody else wants to do it that’s fine.

We all know bits and pieces, there have been a lot of inaccuracies as well. But when we got here and Roy was gone there was a day when the majority of people were saying: He's gone now, let's get on with it.

What happened 24 hours later, and the reaction of the people back home, and of course the Taoiseich was getting involved and that’s when I stepped in and rang Michael Kennedy. And I don’t make any apologies for that, I think I was doing the right thing.

First of all I got in touch with him three days ago, Sunday morning I think. There wasn’t people jumping up and down wanting him back. We understood from the people of Ireland that if Roy was to come down there was a great chance of him coming back. They certainly weren’t going to get in Mick McCarthy’s way.

If Mick McCarthy had accepted whatever apology Roy would have made, the players would have accepted it without a shadow of a doubt. I didn’t talk to Michael Kennedy today, I tried to ring him after we had our meeting but it was middle of the night back home and I only had an office number for him and I think he’ll know that there’s probably not much point of a phone call now.

Conversations I was having with Michael were that he was coming around all the time and the TV was going to be the big one.

Without a shadow of a doubt Mick McCarthy is still the manager and that is why unfortunately this statement was released too early, because it will fit in very neatly after you have spoken to Mick. You will see, and again I repeat, we had no alternative.

He was annoyed with me, but then again I brought up the people at home with Mick and I brought up him as well to protect him. I didn’t want to see him miss out, I wanted to try and salvage winners on all sides if possible.

We have got great heart and spirit in the camp. We are united. Somebody has told me there are stories going about that some young players are trying to split the camp. That is absolutely ridiculous. There are 22 players totally committed to Mick McCarthy.

The only thing I would say for us as players - I am not passing the buck - is that we will do what Mick wants us to do.

The question everybody is asking is can Irish footballrise above this and I think Mick today couldnt accept that Roy would come down and had done enough to prove he was desperate to come out here and desperate to be one of us.

I was desperate for him to apologise. But I don’t think he has done enough and it saddens me to say that. We were left with no alternative in that room than to make a decision: are we backing Mick? And we backed him. Unfortunately that statement came out way too early.

It was part of the motivation, I wanted winners on all sides, I think we all did. I can’t say here that Mick McCarthy is at fault. Ultimately Roy Keane is at fault and we cant escape that. As much as it hurts me to say that, that is the situation.

I have to say lads, in that meeting there were things said that I have never witnessed in my life. I tried to tell you about the structure of the Irish team and the structure of football in Ireland.

How can any coach have a go at a young lad, it will go right down.

If it was just an outburst, a spur of the moment, I’d say yes, they would be back together now.

But Roy won’t come down, he keeps saying he is happy with what he said, and that is what is hurting the whole thing.

Some say he played Holland and Portugal on his own for us in qualifying for this tournament.

He was magnificent. It is harder without him, missing a world class player, but our resolve and determination in that dressing room for the game at the weekend, we will see that it is not as much as maybe you people think, that he will be missed.

We are shattered, that’s why. If it was overnight and we got together and had a meeting first thing. As a player of 35 I am shattered. Physically and mentally we hope to be better by Saturday and I am sure we will be.

If he were to apologise now, I cannot make the decision as to whether or not he will come back. But if Mick put it to the floor I would vote for it, and not only would I do it but I would canvass for it.

I offered to Michael to talk to Roy but knowing how angry Roy was with me, Michael didn’t think it was a good idea. I am not personally hurt at all about what he said because he has had the most difficult week any human being has had to put up with.

I think Steve Staunton got a bit upset because his family rang up and were upset and that upset Steve. He is shattered. If you saw him you would see he is drained and upset but I kept seeing the bigger picture and knew that if it all worked out in the end that Roy and I could have ended up having a cup of tea and a laugh over it. That is what I really hoped for.

We have to try and draw a line under it and get our players thinking about football and I know it is not going to go away. I am willing to be the spokesman for the players.

I still cannot understand why he wont apologise. It is never over till it is over you know, but lets just look at Saturday and try and think about football.

Q:Has he played his last international for Mick McCarthy?

NQ: I am fairly certain of that unless a miracle happens. I think Michael Kennedy is the best negotiator I have ever come across, respected throughout every directors office throughout the land and I pin my hopes on Michael.

As you can see today we have tried to draw a line under it but it is not sitting easy with us. After Roy went home that day I was angry. I knew what had happened in that room.

As I was alone after training in a new place and I was looking at the ceiling and I did get to think about it all the time.

I did get word on what was happening back home and how the big losers were the people back home, so when Roy was making statements they were a bit harshon the likes of Alan Kelly, Steve and myself.

I put it down to he has to do something about that if he is not human if he doesn’t get annoyed because his whole World Cup is over in terrible circumstances and so I was more than willing to put them to one side and I am now whatever comes out of it from Roy, as far as I am concerned I’ll never have relations with him again I suppose but I will never hold any grudge against him for saying anything to me.

I think we have three days to get it right and maybe there is a star in the making in the squad who is going to become our Roy Keane.

There is pressure being put on the likes of Damien Duff because he is such a great player. This could be great for him.

I am trying not to do that but I do think there is somebody there, the hope is there is somebody there who will burst out and be the leader and the inspiration. But I’ll tell you what, we wont go down without a fight, you know that.

Mick is my manager and the structure of the irish team is at the heart of this. He is the boss and that is why we are where we are. I hope to god whatever Mick wants he gets.

If someone had any doubts about Roy coming back, I can guarantee you he would have had 30 seconds of me and he would have had a different opinion. Maybe that is too strong of an influence.