Keane pulls no punches as he vents fury on Fergie

When Roy Keane had his official unveiling as Ireland’s assistant manager last month, he was ready for all — well, almost all — that the huge media presence could throw at him, straight-batting everything from his previous with certain Irish players to his previous with FAI boss John Delaney.

He was even the first to bring up the subject of Saipan, albeit via a jocular reference to the welcome availability of balls and bibs at the national team’s training ground in Malahide.

There was, in fact, only one issue he dodged, at least temporarily, and that was the subject of the withering criticism of his former captain by Alex Ferguson in his old boss’s then newly-published autobiography. “I’m not going to sit here and defend myself regarding Alex Ferguson,” said Keane. “That’s for another day.”

Those four little additional words — which might well have been a meaningless, throwaway line coming from anyone else’s mouth — seemed heavy with ominous intent. And, sure enough, Ferguson hasn’t had to wait too long at all to find himself cast in the role of Alf-Inge Haaland.

Keane’s retaliation against Ferguson’s attack is clinical, highlighting the latter’s “massive ego” as well as what Keane regards as his ruthlessness. He takes the opportunity to nominate Brian Clough as the best manager he played under and even manages to find fault with the praise Ferguson gave in his book for the Corkman’s 1999 Champions League semi-final display against Juventus. “Stuff like that almost insults me,” said Keane. “I get offended when people give quotes like that about me. It’s like praising the postman for delivering letters.”

There’s another close to the bone reference to the Rock Of Gibraltar affair, a defence of David Beckham which doubles as another dig at his old boss and, by way of a hardly surprising conclusion, the declaration the relationship with Ferguson is now “non-existent”.

All of which, bearing in mind the ferocity of Ferguson’s original critique, is to be expected. But there’s more. Just as Ferguson’s book brought his criticism of Keane up to date by questioning his ability as a manager, Keane has similarly moved out of the realm of history asserting Ferguson is still trying to retain influence at Old Trafford.

“Everything is about control and power,” Keane said. “He’s still striving for it now even though he’s not manager. There’s massive ego involved in that.”

The timing and detail of the criticism of Keane in Ferguson’s book looked certain to scupper whatever slim chance Keane might have had of succeeding Giovanni Trapattoni. Martin O’Neill’s decision to bring him in as his number 2 has since altered the picture but it’s still the case Ferguson’s comments were hardly what an out-of-work manager or any prospective employer needed to hear.

Similarly, Keane’s acid observations about Ferguson’s current status at Old Trafford are bound to reverberate when the club is clearly struggling to move on under David Moyes.

The ITV documentary Keane And Vieira: The Best Of Enemies which will air on Tuesday night shows that the United and Arsenal midfielders’ clash on and off pitch back in the day has carried no serious grudge by either party into retirement.

But while one has learned never to say never about Roy Keane — from his reunion with Niall Quinn at Sunderland to agreeing to let bygones be bygones with John Delaney — it’s surely the safest of all bets to assume that ‘Keano And Fergie: The Best Of Enemies’ is one TV nostalgia-fest that will never be made.