TV view: Roy Keane proves a diamond amongst the cheerleaders

Keane’s colleagues Ian Wright and Gary Neville needed little encouragement to paint Jose Mourinho as the villain of Luke Shaw’s poor form at Old Trafford. Keane was having none of it

Roy Keane represented the only form of real entertainment in the 90-minute pre-match package, writes Ian Whittell.

British - make that, English - television coverage of the Euros semi-final with Denmark may have been predictably overwrought, bordering on the hysterical, but at least it confirmed one irrefutable fact.

The most entertaining individual of this highly entertaining tournament has not played for one of the 24 teams but has been sat in the ITV commentary studio.

Step forward Roy Maurice Keane who has been the solitary broadcaster on either of the two British networks who has not only been able to park the stifling pro-English bias but is also unafraid to do what all pundits are meant to do - offer an honest view, even if it is critical.

The modern obsession with, and reliance on, appointing former players and coaches to the commentary box means there is rarely criticism of their current counterparts who may be former team mates, clients of their agents or just employed by their former clubs.

Not so Keane. The former Manchester United legend may at times border on caricature but at least his opinions are always worth listening to. Not for him, the anodyne, vanilla “analysis” offered by so many of his colleagues.

In one pre-match segment about the renaissance of England left-back Luke Shaw, Keane’s colleagues Ian Wright and Gary Neville needed little encouragement to paint Jose Mourinho as the villain of Shaw’s poor form at Old Trafford. Keane was having none of it. “He has improved … it’s about time,” he snapped.

Indeed, with cheerleader-in-chief Wright so nervous about the upcoming 90 minutes that he could hardly talk and presenter Mark Pougatch doing an admirable job of at least trying to temper the pro-England fervour, Keane represented the only form of real entertainment in the 90-minute pre-match package.

A montage about the Neil Diamond classic ‘Sweet Caroline’, adopted by England fans, ended with Neville dropping the delicious detail that his former United captain attended a concert by the American entertainer 10 years ago.

“I ended up arguing with the woman next to me, she kept signing the songs out loud,” replied Keane. “I got in a bit of trouble that night … but it was a brilliant concert.”

Pougatch also teed up Keane during a glowing tribute to Gareth Southgate, showing a photograph of the ex-United man stamping on the England manager in a game against Crystal Palace - an assault for which he was sent off.

“You should go back though,” said Keane defending himself. “Because he just tried to cut me in half so I was retaliating … and if you look at Gareth’s face, he’s probably exaggerating it.”

But it is precisely that approach that makes Keane such a priceless pundit; not just the humour but that fact that if the Irishman does pay a compliment - as he did warmly to Southgate seconds later - you know he surely means it.

Otherwise, unfortunately, ITV and, even more the BBC have simply become national versions of the in-house TV stations that Premier League clubs have created.

To their credit, ITV are not as bad, despite the partisan analysis of Neville, Wright, and a band of others. At least Pougatch had the decency to use the pronoun “they” when referring to England instead of the ubiquitous “we” favoured by his pundits.

Pitchside, Ashley Cole offered little but brilliant Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, one of the TV stars of these Euros, made up for him. Match commentator Sam Matterface gives the impression of trying too hard - there was a tortuous Hamlet analogy at kick-off - but Lee Dixon is one of the most under-rated analysts in the business.

And generally, despite the supposed “curse of ITV” - since the ’98 World Cup, England have won just five tournament games on the channel; 17 on the BBC - Keane probably dragged their coverage up to a solid B-plus or A-minus.

It took a full nine minutes of their pre-game programme for ITV even to mention Denmark but, to their credit, they later did an admirable job of telling the underdogs’ inspiring story with plenty of features and analysis, including their shock win at the 1992 Euros.

Given what was to happen over the next few hours, it was ITV’s best editorial decision, aside from signing Keane.