"You’re shit, enjoy being shit." Man-management the Roy Keane way
In an extract from his new autobiography Rise of the Underdog – My Life Inside Football, which is being serialised in the London Independent, Higginbotham revealed details of a remarkable team-talk Roy Keane delivered before a match with Aston Villa during the 2008/09 season, at a time when Sunderland were in a poor run of form.
“It was bizarre at the time, but turned out to be a stroke of genius,” writes the defender, who was also at Manchester United during Keane’s time at the club.
Higginbotham describes the talk:
“Listen lads,” he said. “Basically, you’re shit. Try and enjoy the game. You’re probably going to get beat. But just enjoy being shit.”
“Then he just walked out. Those words have got to be insulting to any professional, no matter who they come from, and I’ll admit it served as the perfect motivation to get out there and prove him wrong. I scored after 10 minutes and we were leading at half-time. We ended up drawing.”
“Villa were doing okay and Roy’s reverse psychology had worked – on me, at least. He’s a far cleverer person than people realise or would like to acknowledge. He knew what he was doing when he said that, he knew the reaction he would get from some of us, and that was a trick right out of the Brian Clough handbook.”
Higginbotham also recalled another occasion when Keane targeted him for unusual criticism after a reserve team defeat by Manchester City.
As the experienced pro in the team, Keane reckoned Higginbotham was being too kind to younger, underperforming teammates.
Higginbotham quotes:
“Danny,” he says, “All I’m f*****g hearing from you when I’m watching that game yesterday is f*****g encouragement. That’s all I’m hearing.”
“I don’t f******g want that. I want you to tell some of them they’re being c**ts. Tell them.”
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