Angry Keane takes aim at Ferguson

ROY KEANE effectively burned his remaining bridges with Manchester United when he blasted former manager Alex Ferguson for putting his own interests before the club’s.

Ferguson dismissed the Mayfield man’s assertion that United’s Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Ashley Young needed a “reality check” following their Champions League loss to Basel last week.

“I don’t know why you are bringing this up from a television critic,” Ferguson said. “Roy had an opportunity to prove himself as a manager and it’s a hard job.”

And later that week he added in his programme notes for the Wolves game: “We will take a lot of stick from critics and even from people we thought were perhaps on our side but we mustn’t dwell on that either.”

For Keane, it was one slight too far. After putting his body on the line for Ferguson and United for 12-and-a-half years, he could no longer keep his own counsel. Subjected to legal threats from the club, a complete breakdown in relations with his former manager and a perceived attempt to turn the fans against him it all proved too much.

And Ferguson was the root cause of it. In his mind the image portrayed by the club about the United manager is not the way Ferguson really is.

Keane told yesterday’s Sunday Times: “People say Ferguson always does what’s right for Man United. I don’t think he does. I think he does what’s right for him.

“The Irish thing [Ferguson’s aborted legal action against John Magnier over the breeding rights to Coolmore Stud stallion Rock Of Gibraltar], I was speaking to the manager about it. This didn’t help the club, the manager going to law against its leading shareholder.

“How could it be of benefit to Man United? It wasn’t and we know what happened [in the end]. What was that all about? Power and control. ‘They’ve used me, they’ve treated me badly’, Ferguson told me in his office. I said, ‘You’re not going to win’, and he said, ‘I don’t care, no one does that to me’, and I go, ‘Okay, off you go, I’m not going to change your mind’. Amazing what happens.”

It still hurts when he thinks how he was shown the door following the infamous MUTV rant and subsequent row with assistant coach Carlos Queiroz at a meeting where he took offence to the Portuguese lecturing him on loyalty, reminding he was the one who left for Real Madrid when the chance came.

He waited two years to air his thoughts on the matter — an interview with Tom Humprhies in the Irish Times — and when he did a letter arrived at his house from Brabners, Chaffe, Street Solicitors acting on behalf of Manchester United. United were threatening to sue and he was furious.

“I count my blessings to have played for Manchester United. All of my family are United fans and I don’t have any bitterness towards Man United, please let’s make that clear. But when you get a letter from lawyers representing the club through your letter box, you wonder what it was all about.

“I rang David Gill [United’s chief executive], ‘What’s this all about, David?’ I did an interview to promote Guide Dogs for the Blind, I touched upon my leaving United. ‘What’s it all about?’, I asked David.”

But he knew the letter would not have been sent unless Ferguson wanted it. Repeated requests for an apology flooded his mailbox but Keane’s trusty friend Michael Kennedy dealt with the matter. It was ignored. Eventually the matter went away but the hurt deepened.

“I look back at the relationship and I sometimes wonder if it wasn’t about me being good for him and good for the club. People say he stood by me in difficult times. But not when I was 34, not when I was towards the end and had a few differences with Carlos Queiroz. All of a sudden then, ‘Off you go, Roy, and here’s the statement we’ve done, and here this and here’s that’.

“I had disagreements with the manager over many years. I remember one really bad one, I might have been 26 or 27, something happened at a Christmas do, it was a proper blazing row, but he dealt with it.

“Clever management, you recognise when players are really important to you.

“I go back to the two words, power and control. ‘Say this, Roy, do this, pull this in a little bit’, what I did or said was always for the good of the club. I suffered for that towards the end, then it was unacceptable. The difference was that I was 34.”

It’s become so encapsulating Keane would not even take his son to a game at Old Trafford now.

He still holds out hope of another job. Football means too much to allow others dictate whether he will work or not.

“I feel my role is out with a club somewhere, I really do, and as much as I’m enjoying my time off, I see myself on the sideline with a team.”