“England have not done well at big tournaments and everyone is intrigued by it, but the priority for a lot of top players now is not international football,” said Keane. “Years ago, when players were starting out, the pinnacle was playing for your country, but it’s not like that any more – the pinnacle is winning League titles and playing in the Champions League at club level. There are a lot of rivalries within the squad, particularly with the clubs they are at, and some players don’t like what they see when the squad gets together. They don’t want to be part of it. Paul Scholes retired a few years ago because he was fed up with the kind of circus that was behind England with certain players trying to call the shots. There might be other genuine reasons why they don’t like it – a lot of players might have family problems and they don’t want the sacrifice of going away on long trips. And they might say, ‘I don’t need this hassle in my life’, particularly if they are at top clubs. But in international football, especially if they think there are certain favours going on or certain people are trying to call the shots, they just don’t want to be part of it. They think they have more to lose than to gain with England. I know Scholes used to be pissed off because there was a lot going on, much of it nothing to do with football.”

“They’ll be disappointed, not necessarily just because of the result, but because of the performance,” said Keane. “Listen, Man United, for all the doom and gloom, they’re still the best club on the planet, they’ve got the best supporters and the best manager, so get behind your team, it’s still not over. City have still got to go up to Newcastle but they’re in the driving seat now. But United will always be United. To me, they are still the best and whatever disappointments they’re having at the moment, don’t worry, they’ll bounce back. They always do.”

Whilst United can’t match City for transfer spending, it is the wages that poses the biggest problem, with us buying young players with great potential rather than splashing out on more developed players on the top salary. Keane acknowledges this is in an issue when it comes to strengthening the team but insists there are still plenty of players who’d want to join our club.

“It’s one thing identifying a player you want to bring to your team but going and getting them,” said Keane. “With the transfer fees, but not just that, the big problem for United might be the wages because we know what type of wages Man City are paying. It’s going to be difficult but Man United will always be attractive to a lot of players and I’m sure the manager is looking at players who can improve the squad. You can’t just buy players for the sake of it. You’ve got to look at them and think can they improve what we already have. Man United have got some top, top players. Don’t worry about them, United will be fine.”

As part of the special edition of the fanzine, I wrote an article looking at some well known Manchester United players in their 25th year…

Roy Keane – August 10th 1996

United somehow managed to win the league in 1996, despite being 12 points behind Newcastle in February, and Roy Keane opened his goalscoring account in the first game of the following season in the Charity Shield again Kevin Keegan’s men. United won 4-0.

Plagued with knee problems, Keane made just his third league appearance at the end of October and was sent off for two bookable offences after 20 minutes. United still managed to score three goals without him but conceded six.

From the turn of the year, Keane picked up seven yellow cards in the eighteen games he played in, including a costly booking in the first leg of the European Cup semi-final against Borussia Dortmund. United lost that game, and the return leg without him, 1-0.

Keane was named captain for the following season after inheriting the armband from Eric Cantona who retired. He finished the season with three goals in thirty three appearances before going to the Far East on tour, where he had a run in with Peter Schmeichel.

“I was trying to sleep in a Hong Kong hotel when I heard the banging in the corridor,” recalled Andy Cole. “I went to investigate and saw that Roy Keane, the club captain, was rolling around fighting with Peter Schmeichel, the giant goalkeeper. They weren’t playing. ‘Typical Roy,’ I thought, and went back to bed smiling. The next day, Schmeichel was wearing sunglasses. There had only been one winner. Keane could fall out with anyone. I once saw him come to blows with one of his best mates, Denis Irwin, in the dressing room. They were both from Cork and close friends. And they were being pulled apart.”

David Beckham May 2nd 2000

A week before David Beckham’s 25th birthday, France Football released a report showing that David Beckham was the highest paid English footballer, bringing in £1.4m a year and earning £27,000 a week.

In the summer he was linked with moves to a whole host of top European club, including Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, but the biggest story involving him at the time was the gesture he made to England fans following a 3-2 defeat to Portugal at the Euros. After setting up two goals, he was subjected to abuse from his own fans as he walked off the pitch, so he responded by sticking his middle finger up at them. In contrast to the vilification of Beckham we had seen two years earlier at the World Cup, the press, for the most part, supported him.

A few months in to the season, Beckham scored the only goal in the derby with a freekick with just 90 seconds on the clock. United went five points clear at the top whilst City were just four points above the relegation zone.

Just before Christmas, Beckham hinted for the first time that he may be open to a move away from the club. “If I’m happy and my family are happy then I will stay where I am, if things go well with the club and the contract,” he said. “But you don’t know. You can never say about that. So I will have to wait and see over the next few months.”

In the February, Beckham was named England captain by manager Sven Goran-Eriksson but the following month was dropped by Ferguson for the game against Sturm Graz after a string of below par performances.

Having already won the title in April, United had a difficult game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals. Beckham picked up a silly yellow card for a foul on Stefan Effenberg and would miss the second leg.

“David on his best form would be a massive loss and, of course, I would prefer it if he was available,” said Ferguson. “But he has not been playing as well as we would have liked. He knows that. All great players have little spells when they are not at their best. He is going through it now.”

Beckham finished the season with nine goals and one assist and was still being linked with other clubs. “Let me make it clear, I still love Manchester United,” he said. “I have been at the club since I was 16. Manchester is where I grew up as a footballer, playing for the best manager and the best club in the world. I have lived in the city for 10 years. I regard it as my home now.”

Rio Ferdinand – November 7th 2003

Two weeks before his 25th birthday, Rio Ferdinand was one of the Manchester United players named to have a routine drugs test. He was told that he would be tested for drugs after training. Training ended and Rio went to town where he was pictured shopping. At 2.02pm he called the club to ask could he come back for the test. The testers told him he was too late but they didn’t leave Carrington until 2.27pm, which would have been enough time to return for the test. UEFA’s website confirmed that Rio had asked to take the test on the same day but was told it was too late. Drug-test procedures do not have a time limit so there was no reason why the testers couldn’t have waited, given the implications of what him not taking the test were. Rio was tested for drugs at their next convenience, two days later, and that test came back negative.

Before Rio’s ban and fine had been announced, PFA chief Gordon Taylor was confident, like many, that there would be no problem in clearing the defender’s name, after the evidence that Rio’s plea to take the test before the testers left was rejected.

“If I was representing the FA and they asked me should it go ahead, I would say that unless they can mount an emphatic challenge to this evidence it should not,” he said. “We don’t want to sweep anything under the carpet but the case is now far from cut and dried. It is clear the testers should have stayed. Not enough was done to ensure Rio took the test on that day. It is not good enough to just leave when he was prepared to make it back.”

However, Rio was fined £50,000 and banned for eight months. After the unprecedented punishment was handed out, Rio offered to have a hair follicle test, which would have shown any drug use over the previous six months, going back to before his original test date, but the FA declined his request.

The MEN reported at the time: The FA does not appear to dispute Ferdinand’s claims that he has never taken drugs – they have not listed him for target-testing, which would be the usual procedure for any player suspected of being a drug user. And their refusal to get involved in hair follicle testing is further evidence that they do not question Ferdinand’s claims that he is drug-free. They maintain the punishment is for his failure to take the test alone.

His last game of the season was in January, with United four points clear of Arsenal, but any hopes we had of retaining the title faded away after then.

“Our performances in the first half of the season were terrific – then we lose Rio and all of a sudden we are back-pedalling,” said Ferguson. “We have to adjust to the fact that Rio is not there. We have to handle it. We have lost Rio and there is nothing we can do about it. So let’s get on with it.”

In March, Rio lost his appeal, meaning he would certainly miss out on the rest of United’s season as well as the European Championships in the summer.

“I can’t believe what the FA have done to me,” Ferdinand said. “I’ve always accepted that I missed the test. But I think most people now realise it was a genuine mistake, even those at the FA. So why do they find it necessary to push for such a harsh punishment? They know I didn’t take drugs. The Appeal Board even made a point of saying so.”

United finished the season 3rd, fifteen points behind Arsenal, although did win the FA Cup, which Rio has still yet to win.

Wayne Rooney – October 24th 2010

Wayne Rooney started the season where he turned 25 with details of his private life all over the papers, with it being revealed he had been sleeping with a prostitute behind his pregnant wife’s back. His form suffered and he was left out of the game against Everton at Goodison Park for fear he wouldn’t be able to handle the stick that would come his way.

Rooney picked up an ankle injury in United’s game against Bolton and was subbed off to the bench with half an hour to go where he sat and iced his injury. Fergie claimed he would be out for three weeks but Rooney later responded in the press by saying he wasn’t injured and didn’t know why the manager said he was.

Five days before his 25th birthday, Ferguson revealed at a press conference that Rooney had made it clear he would not be signing a new deal and he wanted to leave the club.

“The one thing I said to him was ‘respect this club’, I don’t want any nonsense from you,” he said. “I don’t know if he has done that. I have doubts on that, we are reading all these things about falling out with me and all that nonsense. It’s disappointing because we have done everything we possibly can to help Wayne Rooney ever since he came to the club. We have always been here as a harbour for him any time he has been in trouble.”

Two days before he turned 25, he put pen to paper on a new five year deal with the club. “I’m delighted to sign another deal at United,” he said. “In the last couple of days, I’ve talked to the manager and the owners and they’ve convinced me this is where I belong.”

By the turn of the year, Rooney had scored just two goals in all competitions for United. The players and manager defended him though, until Giggs broke ranks in February.

“For the fans, and probably me to an extent and a lot of the players, what really got our backs up was as soon as City were mentioned,” he said. “For me, as a United fan, as soon as you hear City being talked about, you think, well, that can’t happen. I was surprised.”

A week later was derby day and the stage was set for Rooney. At 1-1 with ten minutes to, Rooney leapt up in the air with his back to goal and with an extraordinary overhead kick scored the winner for United.

Finally he started earning his money, scoring for United in the league, FA Cup and Champions League much more regularly. He even got a hattrick against West Ham but this wasn’t without controversy. He swore down a camera when celebrating his 14 minute hattrick and was banned for two games, meaning he missed the FA Cup semi-final against City which we lost.

As the season approached its end, with United favourites to win the league and in the European Cup final, Rooney admitted he was wrong to question the club. “Obviously I understand I made a mistake,” he said. “When I look at it now, how wrong was I? I admitted that and I apologised for that and I have wanted to try and prove myself again to the Manchester United. I feel I am doing that now. I am 100 per cent committed to this club.”

Rooney finished the season with sixteen goals, including one in the European Cup final defeat to Barcelona, and the Premier League winners medal to satisfy his ambition.

“I don’t know until I get the call,” he said. “I have to say, I think I am keeping myself busy, but I don’t sit around all day with my feet up, it is not in my make-up. Football is very much in my blood and I have to say the idea of football management, being on the sideline for all the suffering that goes with it, is something that I enjoy. But I really do not know until that call comes. If I see vacancies available and I think I can do something for the club, like everybody else I will put my CV in for it.”

Keane has suggested he would even consider a move abroad after turning down offers from foreign clubs to play for them when he was at United.

“I am very open-minded,” said Keane. “I think I might have made a mistake as a player not moving abroad, but I was very happy at United. I had opportunities to go abroad but I did not take them, so I would not rule it out. I think you have to be open-mined when you are a coach or a manager; it is a worldwide game now. Yes so if the right opportunity came along I would look at it.”

For more insight from Roy Keane and other leading managers plus exclusive Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport

“I think it is an important role,” said Keane. “We have seen headlines over the last few moths particularly about the England set-up. What I always enjoyed with the captains I played under, that would be Stuart Pearce when I was at Forest or Andy Townsend at Ireland or Steve Bruce, Eric Cantona and Brian Robson, they were great captains in a sense that they did not make an issue out of it. They were not on an ego trip. They would take it on board of course when you are at the bigger clubs. You have got to win trophies and you have to be an example when you train, the way you play, your commitment to the team and there are off the field activities particularly when you are at a big club. At United it would have been the media commitments sorting out tickets, it might sound like trivia but sorting out tickets for family, Christmas parties. There are big commitments for the captain at Manchester United I have to say, but as long as you don’t take your eye off the ball in terms of what you are about and that is a player, being a good leader on the training pitch and obviously when you are travelling helping foreign players and their families. I was comfortable with doing that. But of course it was no good doing all of that and not turning up on a Saturday and saying ‘I have had a busy week looking after the crèche.’ You still have to play well and the players have got to see that as well, not getting side tracked by anything and thinking it is more than it is. You are still there to be a player and to be a top player and I found that as I said about Stuart Pearce. When I came over from Ireland he was the captain of England. He was the best player every day in training. There was no nonsense. He was not obsessed with the media, the money, cars. It was all about what he stood for in the dressing room. He took no nonsense, people think a captain has got to be mates with people, you don’t. You just have to have the respect of your team mates and you earn that on the training ground. However supporters only see you once a week on a match day. However, when you work with people every day of the week, that is when you get the respect.”

Keane reflected on his relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson when he was captain but doesn’t think that captains are necessarily chummy with the manager.

“People have this image of me when I was at United that I was in someway closer to the manager than other players but it was not the case,” he continued. “There has to be an element of trust from the captain to the manager, be it organising training so the manager can let the captain get on with it. There would not be any cosy chats or meeting for cups of tea or anything like that. I think there is possibly a lot of trust involved that the manager knows that the captain is taking care of things. Not just the captain but the senior players are looking after things in the dressing room. We had a very good dressing room at United and if senior players felt some of the younger boys were not training with the right attitude it would be taken care of in the dressing room. What you find with a lot of the managers it is almost a case of baby sitting players. But in a good strong dressing room with players such as Cantona, Paul Ince, Brian Robson and Steve Bruce we would not let ourselves get away with it. Don’t get me wrong we enjoyed ourselves but we did not tolerate anything but giving our best.”

For more insight from Roy Keane and other leading managers plus exclusive Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport

“I think when you are playing under a manager like that and winning lots of games, part of your mindset is that it is going to be easy,” said Keane. “Your mindset is about winning matches, so I think going to any job after United is that you have to expect to lose football matches. So I had to change my mindset quite a bit, even when we got promoted with Sunderland. I think we lost about 11 games, maybe 4 or 5 before I took over, so then of course when you get promoted you’re going to lose 20 odd games during the course of a league campaign. So it is changing the mindset. But as you said there are a lot of players who have played under these managers.”

For more insight from Roy Keane and other leading managers plus exclusive Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport

“I was trying to sleep in a Hong Kong hotel when I heard the banging in the corridor,” said Cole. “It was 1997 and I was on tour with Manchester United. I went to investigate and saw that Roy Keane, the club captain, was rolling around fighting with Peter Schmeichel, the giant goalkeeper. They weren’t playing. ‘Typical Roy,’ I thought, and went back to bed smiling. The next day, Schmeichel was wearing sunglasses. There had only been one winner. Keane could fall out with anyone. I once saw him come to blows with one of his best mates, Denis Irwin, in the dressing room. They were both from Cork and close friends. And they were being pulled apart.”

Cole was with Keano in Basel ahead of the game which post-match comments exposed the bad feeling between our former captain and our manager.

“Keane is as honest a TV critic as he was a player,” he continued. “I raised my eyebrows when he took that job, though, because he used to hammer players who went into TV, but Keane wants to stay in football and wants to stay active. Life moves on. If you don’t play then you manage or coach. If you don’t manage then you get into TV. TV companies want him because they know he won’t sit on the fence and be afraid to upset people. Keane made comments in Basel after United were eliminated from the Champions League which annoyed Ferguson. I was with Keane in Basel before the game and he was in a great mood. He came to see me, Gary Pallister and Bryan Robson in our hotel for a coffee. That’s the Gary Pallister whom Keane didn’t speak to for three years when they played together. They’re fine now and can laugh about it. I hope Keane and Ferguson can sort their differences out. I hope Keane can have the same type of relationship that Bryan Robson, a former United captain, has with the manager. Knowing both, that’s not going to happen overnight.”

Read the full article written with Andy Mitten in The National.

At full time, Keane claimed that our young players hadn’t done well enough. He also made reference to Phil Jones’ comments ahead of kick-off and questioned how relaxed he felt now.

Sir Alex Ferguson was told about Keane’s comment and had a dig of his own, reminding Roy that he is just a TV pundit, not a manager, following his sacking from Ipswich last January.

“I don’t know why you are bringing this up from a television critic,” said Ferguson. “Roy had an opportunity to prove himself as a manager and it’s a hard job. We have enough good young players to see us through. I have every confidence in them. That is part of football. You have to deal with disappointment. It has been used as motivation at this club many times before. These young players will have to cope with it and get on with it in their careers.”

On playing again

“When football is in your blood or you’ve played for a great club like Man United, you still have your days where you go ‘I’d give anything to go back and play in one of those games, anything.’”

On the dressing room on derby day

“It’s fabulous, absolutely brilliant. That’s what you miss. That’s what you want to go back for. It’s pretty easy for the manager. Obviously he’ll have to pick his eleven but he can leave the rest to the players. I didn’t like too much chat. Everyone thinks I was a ranter and a raver, I certainly wasn’t. The players know, there’s that feeling in the air, that this is the game. You make sure you’re not going to lose it. When I play for United, we had a good record against City.”

On the dressing room after the derby

“I never lost a derby, thank God. Every time you play a big game there’s the fear of losing, but it’s a nice fear, it’s why you make sure you don’t lose. After you win some of the big games, I was never one for celebrating too much.”

On City or Liverpool

“With the progress City have made, if I was still playing for United I’d City would probably be the game I’d want to win more. When I was a player, City weren’t always in the top league, so it was always the Arsenal game for me, but City must be the game for the players now.”

On that derby in 93/94

“It was pretty good. Particularly because we’d been two goals down. I still remember the game like it was yesterday. I’d missed a couple of good chances. I was through one on one with Tony Coton. But we had some great players, like Cantona and Giggsy, so we knew we were never out of the game. When it went to 3-2, yeh, that was pretty good.”

“United to me are just going to get stronger and they are the team to beat as usual,” said Keane. “At reserve and academy level, they have got such good young players coming through. Eventually you hope they get into the first team, just as Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley have. And they settle straight into the team because they’ve got good habits, good attitudes and a good spirit. The only major question mark would be if Wayne Rooney picks up an injury, because he’s a big, big player for them. He is scoring goals for fun. Since he signed his contract, he has settled down and his best years are still ahead of him.”