“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.”

When Roy Keane took charge of Sunderland, less than a year after leaving United, it was natural for us to look out for their results. He had been such a massive figure in shaping our greatest moments over the past decade so of course we would wish him the best wherever he got in to management. If the United connection had ended there, we probably wouldn’t have thought much else of it, but as the years have gone by, this connection has grown.

In the past five years alone, Sunderland have been represented by Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Phil Bardsley, Kieran Richardson, Frazier Campbell, Jonny Evans, Danny Welbeck, Danny Simpson, Danny Higginbotham, Liam Miller, David Healey and Paul McShane. Our former keeper, Raimond Van der Gouw has worked at the club as a coach and our former Reserve team coach, Ricky Sbragia, was on their staff and was caretaker manager when Keano left. Mick Brown, our former assistant manager, was their head scout, Neil Bailey, our former youth team coach is on their staff, as well as our former player, Michael Clegg. Not only was one former captain, Keane, their manager, but our captain when we brought back our first title in twenty six years, Steve Bruce, is their current manager.

With John O’Shea and Wes Brown joining those numbers yesterday, it’s pretty hard to deny the link between the two clubs. Whilst some of those players mentioned above weren’t fans’ favourites or hadn’t played at United for a while, these two are well loved by our fans.

In the 2003 run in, United fans took a “We’ve got Wesley Brown, we’ve got John O’Shea, Manchester is dreaming of silverware in May” banner to the away games. Both their songs, particularly Wes’, regularly get sung at Old Trafford and will do for years to come. Seeing these lads we’ve watched grow up at the club wearing the shirt of another won’t feel nice, but it will also make it more difficult to avoid that soft spot for Sunderland.

Clearly though, I’m not actually adopting Sunderland as my second team, but I will probably feel a stronger attachment to them than I have any club that isn’t United before. Just looking at their squad, their back four next season will probably consist entirely consist of our youth team products!

I will be cheering them on though, looking out for their score, and hoping they do as well as possible next season.

Come on Brucey and the lads!

“Keane is the hottest prospect in football right now,”

It was Friday afternoon, Dalglish wanted the paperwork on the deal to go through, but there was no one still around in the Ewood Park offices so Keane couldn’t sign. No big deal, thought the Scot, it will wait until Monday.

However, Sir Alex Ferguson had just helped Manchester United win their first title in 26 years and was looking to take the team forward. Captain Bryan Robson was on his last legs and we would need someone else to fight our battles in the centre of the park. Why Fergie hadn’t spotted Keane before then is a puzzle but the manager got him on the phone on Sunday lunch time.

After establishing that nothing had been signed with Blackburn, Ferguson invited Keane to Manchester. The manager met Roy at the airport and drove him to his house where they played a game of snooker.

“I liked him straight away,” said Roy. “For a man managing Manchester United, he was unaffected, funny and reassuringly human. He was also clearly hungry for more trophies. There were a few obstacles to overcome before a deal could be done. We agreed that I would tell Dalglish our deal was off.”

Unsurprisingly, King Kenny wasn’t too pleased to hear that Sir Alex had snatched his star man from under his nose. In his autobiography, Keane reflected on that conversation:

“What the fuck do you mean? We shook hands on a deal. You can’t back out now.”

“Look, I’m sorry, I really am,” I told him, “but I’ve got my future to think about, I’m entitled to that.”

I felt very uneasy about the situation. But here was Kenny Dalglish insisting that I honour a deal I hadn’t signed. The same Kenny Dalglish who’d spent several months “tapping” me up behind Brian Clough’s back. The more he swore at me, the less my conscience bothered me.

Dalglish wasn’t finished there though. The following day, 6.30 in the morning, the Scot was back on the phone:

“You won’t get away with this,” he began. “Blackburn Rovers will sue you for every penny you’ve got.” He and Ferguson had never got on and this more than anything appeared to be bugging him. He called me names. He repeated that nobody “fucked” with Kenny Dalglish and “got away with it”. I told him I was going on holiday and that the matter was closed as far as I was concerned.

So, he didn’t sign for Arsenal, or Blackburn, because they’re shite. He signed for Man United because they’re fucking dynamite.

Imagine Dalglish’s frustration 18 years later, back in charge of Liverpool now, having just witnessed Ferguson lead United to a record 19th title, when he misses out on yet another great prospect. Phil Jones, the lad tipped to be future England captain, was favourite to sign for Liverpool. The papers claimed a deal would be done later that day, only for it to be reported that he was having a medical with United. Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool were amongst the clubs that had bids accepted, yet Jones opted to sign for us. Arsenal even offered him better wages but he turned them down.

However, Blackburn’s owners have thrown a spanner in the works, having got wind of how highly rated this lad is. The £16.5m release clause in his contract has been activated, making it irrelevant how much money they want for him. This didn’t stop Liverpool bidding £22m for the player who has already turned them down in favour of United yesterday.

The player’s agent has told the papers that the deal with United is still on, with it set to be announced today, as this is where the player wants to go. The Venky’s were under the impression the release clause meant clubs were allowed to talk to the player which is why Dalglish, in his desperation, offered £6m more.

As if losing out on the player at the last minute wasn’t embarrassing enough for Liverpool, but throwing money at the situation in the hope that it will get them what they want. Jones has made it clear he wants to play for United, not Liverpool, yet here they are, offering £6m above the release clause, with Dalglish clearly not happy about being done by Fergie again.

Phil Jones’ agent has confirmed that the deal is done and should be announced soon, as the release clause can’t be challenged by the Blackburn owners. The agent confirmed that Jones had met with all four clubs who had offered the release clause and chose United.

Quotes were attributed to Jones, who is set to play alongside our Chris Smalling in today’s England U-21 game against Spain, which suggested if he wanted to continue winning nothing in his career, he would have stayed at Blackburn.

He didn’t sign for Arsenal, or the scousers because they’re shite. He signed for Man United because they’re fucking dynamite.

Keano also reckons that whilst Barca’s starting team is brilliant, their squad isn’t as strong as United’s, so injuries could be key to who wins.

“At Wembley, the United fans will take over the stadium. In a one-off game, with fans behind them, of course they can do it,” he said. “They will have to do really well to beat this Barcelona team and my concern would be not picking up injuries. The Barcelona starting XI is brilliant, outstanding, but their squad is probably not as strong as United’s.”

Remarkably, Vieira’s team, which he couldn’t restrict to just eleven players, was filled with Manchester United players, some Arsenal players, and nobody from his current club, Manchester City.

“I would pick out Giggs, Scholes and Keane from United,” he said. “It would be hard to restrict it to only 11 players. Steven Gerrard would be in my team. I would go with Thierry for sure, Henry. And I like Andy Cole. I like Dwight Yorke. Bergkamp. Alan Shearer. David Seamen. Stam. And Martin Keown.”

“Over the last 20 years, lots of good players have left United,” said Giggs. “How do you replace Keaney? You don’t. You are never going to get another Roy Keane, but different players come in and the team evolves that way. When Roy left, Scholesy took up the mantle in the centre of midfield and Michael Carrick also. They are different players, but still effective in different ways. It was the same with Eric Cantona. Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Teddy Sheringham all came and did well in his place. We’re not over-reliant on one player. Last year, we relied on Wayne’s goals, but people still had to create those goals for him. This year, while he has been away from the team, we have done OK. We haven’t been firing on all cylinders, but we have done OK goals-wise. The team moves on and that has to carry on if the club is to be successful.”

————
Interview with Mark Ogden

“He is the player that has the most influence in a dressing room that I have ever seen,” said Pique. “I have been in many dressing rooms and with very important players, but I remember reaching half time in games and it was only him that spoke, the one that made the speech. Sir Alex Ferguson was to one side and he spoke. I am still profoundly affected by him.”

Pique recalls a run-in that he had with the former United skipper after he had left his phone on vibrate and someone rang.

“I used to keep it in the pocket of my tracksuit that we wore when we met up with United and I hung it on the peg and it began to vibrate,” he continued. “There was no sound, it just vibrated and he did not like mobile phones in the dressing room. You had to be completely focussed on the game an hour beforehand and then it began to vibrate and he noticed it and there was a bit of a kerfuffle. He discovered it and he told me off.”