Ireland stunned as Keane 'goes too far'

Republic of Ireland captain Roy Keane was expected to fly back to the British Isles today after manager Mick McCarthy’s shock decision to dismiss him.

Midfielder Keane was this morning left on his own in the team hotel on the sun-drenched Pacific island of Saipan after the rest of the squad moved to their new training base in Japan.

Manchester United were said to have sent the club’s private jet to pick up their influential player.

The jet was this morning believed to be en route to Saipan, BBC Radio 5 Live said.

Keane was thrown out of the team after an apparent stand-up row with McCarthy and two media interviews - one with the Irish Times newspaper and the other with RTE - in which the Manchester United star criticised in sharp detail the Irish training set-up.

The move sent shock waves that rippled from the Irish soccer base on the sun-drenched Pacific island of Saipan all the way back to rain-lashed Ireland.

And at the same time, most observers reckoned it scuttled the Republic’s chances of proceeding beyond the opening stages of the World Cup finals that begin at the end of next week.

Ireland’s number one soccer fan, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, stayed strictly neutral in the controversy that has rocked the foundations of the Irish game.

While the development depressed Irish followers worldwide, with most rushing to make their views clear, Mr Ahern, a Manchester United as well as an Irish supporter, and re-elected to office in a general election just last week, said only that he had been ‘‘disappointed’’ by the developments.

He added: ‘‘Soccer at international level is a very tough business and I wish Mick and the rest of the team well in their preparations for the challenge ahead.’’

On the evidence of calls made to media outlets, however, most of the public sympathy lay with McCarthy, who was also backed all the way by the Football Association of Ireland.

The soccer authorities called a news conference at their central Dublin headquarters - staged in a room that seemed designed to replicate the heat of the team’s Far Eastern base - to stress their endorsement of the manger’s action.

Telephone polls carried out by a number of radio stations also came down heavily in favour of McCarthy’s disciplinary action and against the one-man Keane rebellion.

There were still calls for the captain to be recalled, though and some pleas for Irish president Mary McAleese and US former Senator George Mitchell, who helped bring about the Northern Ireland peace process, to intervene.

But in the streets of Keane’s native city of Cork, and in Dublin, there was a balance of criticism of the player rather than the manager.

One trader in Cork said ‘‘I am a great fan of Roy’s - always have been. But this time, he has gone too far.’’

And in Dublin, the consensus was summed by the comment in O’Connell Street of shopworker John O’Sullivan: ‘‘No one man is greater than the team.

‘‘We haven’t a chance of getting anywhere in the World Cup now, but McCarthy had no alternative in my view.’’

Not everyone was as understanding about the manager’s position, however.

Former Irish soccer international Eamon Dunphy, now an influential broadcaster and journalist, led the condemnation of the man in charge.

He railed: ‘‘It’s a monumental blunder on the part of Mick McCarthy.’’

Keane’s prominent involvement in a number of World Cup advertising campaigns was left in doubt.

He features in a number of already-familiar ads for names like Kit-Kat, Seven Up, Walkers’ Crisps and Ireland’s Eircom telephone network.

His picture can be seen at present in hoardings and bus shelters nationwide as part of World Cup campaigns costing the companies making the investment hundreds of thousands of euro each.

One pub has been covered by a huge drinks ad canvass bearing about 10 likenesses of the ex-skipper.

Last night, advertising trade sources said campaigns concentrating on an individual were always regarded as a risk, but the future of those using Keane had been left in a state of uncertainty by yesterday’s developments.