Whilst some see Roy Keane as a violent, uncontrolled scumbag, he will forever remain as an inspirational, professional, dedicated winner to us.

Keane always had the highest expectations since starting to play the game as a youngster. When he broke in to the Nottingham Forest side, before joining United, he was left amazed by the negative attitude of so many towards the game.

Roy never took anything for granted and his cruciate ligament injury in 1997 emphasised this attitude to him all the more. He came back in the 1998-1999 season prepared to fight and give everything to the team. It is no surprise that we won what we did that year.

Amongst the many controversies of Keane’s career, one that shines out brighter than most is his return from the World Cup in 2002. Following the shambolic running of the Irish national side by Mick McCarthy, following years of poor organisation by the FAI, Keane lost it and went off on one on McCarthy. Roy was fed up with the Irish team being a laughing stock, managing everything in such a slap-dash manner. He believed that the lack of preparation going in to the big tournaments set Eire up to fail every time.

So, in honour of our former great captain, who always stuck to his principles whatever the cost, a new design has been added to MancuniaMerchandise.com, depicting one of his quotes.

And here are some of his other memorable quotes



“A day’s not passed where I haven’t thought, `Can I be even more of an unmitigated tosspot?’. I would like to think I can.”

“Alex Ferguson rang me up, flew me to Manchester, we didn’t discuss contracts, just football and I joined.”

“Away from home our fans are fantastic…but at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch.”

“I love it when the team scores….the lads are always giving me stick because of it, but I’m just so happy I can’t help it.”

“I’ll never change my game. It isn’t possible. If I did I would be half the player that I am.”

“Patrick Vieira is 6 foot 4, and he starts having a go at Gary Neville, so I said ‘come on have a go at me’. Simple as that. He’s trying to intimidate my players and I’m not having any of it.”

“He (Vieira) was going on and on about the charity work he was doing in Senegal, and I said to him “if you love Senegal so much, why don’t you f***ing play for them?”

“People need to set their standards a bit higher and not live in the past. Whoever said I want to be remembered? Why should I worry about what people think about me in the future? I might be dead tomorrow.”