Fergie told Keane to call truce with McCarthy over Saipan

Alex Ferguson has revealed he warned Roy Keane life would be “horrendous” for his family if he didn’t patch up his differences with Mick McCarthy in Saipan 13 years ago.

In his new autobiography, Ferguson explains how he broke off from his 60th birthday celebrations abroad to deal with the “eruption” his Manchester United captain was having in the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup.

The Ireland captain controversially didn’t get to feature at the finals, though Fergie insists he’d managed to convince Keane, through much persuasion, to call a truce with McCarthy and play on the biggest stage.

Though Fergie acknowledged that Keane, as skipper, had legitimate rights to complain about the “substandard” facilities which greeted the squad on the Pacific island, his mentor didn’t agree with the reaction.

“My brother Martin had taken me for a week’s holiday for my 60th birthday,” said Ferguson.

“At dinner, I didn’t take my phone along with me. But Martin had taken his and as we let it ring.

“It was Michael Kennedy (Keane’s agent) saying he had been trying to contact me.

“Michael made it clear that there had been an eruption in Saipan… ‘you need to talk to him, you’re the only man he’ll listen to’.

“He told me the story of Roy’s confrontation with Mick McCarthy.

“Keane’s voice came on the line and I said ‘Roy, what on earth are you thinking about?’

“Roy unspooled his anger at McCarthy. But I told him to calm down and offered him some advice. ‘You cannot afford to make your children go to school every day with this as the background to their lives.

“Think of your family. It will be horrendous. Forget the World Cup finals. This will be the biggest story all summer.’

Keane heeded the guidance, yet the damage was already irreversible by the time the approach to McCarthy was being prepared.

Niall Quinn, Stephen Staunton and Alan Kelly appeared alongside McCarthy at a hastily arranged press briefing to confirm Keane’s departure from the squad.

“Roy knew I was right,” said Ferguson. “I told him to go back in there with McCarthy, just the two of them, sort it out and tell the manager he would be playing. Roy agreed.

“But, by the time he went back, Mick had already given a press conference to explain what had been going on. There was no way back for Roy.”

Adhering to his lifelong principle of loyalty, Ferguson didn’t allow his personal feelings shade any public declarations as the saga continued for months and years.

“I defended Roy to the hilt because he had come from Manchester United with the high standards we had.

“Going to a substandard training base, with no training kit, is a reasonable issue to get angry about, and as a captain he had every reason to complain. The question in life is: how far do you take a grievance?”

“As bad as the conditions were, Roy shouldn’t have pushed his anger to such levels. But that was Roy. He was a man of extremes.”