Keane pays the ultimate price for searing honesty

THE END came, like so many incidents in Roy Keane’s tempestuous career, with a devastating suddenness.

One minute he appeared destined at least to see out the season at Old Trafford, the next his 13-year Manchester United career was over, wrapped in the diplomatic envelope of “mutual consent.”

The tributes flowed, of course, as they always do when a respected warrior is carried out on his shield for the final time.