Sunday Times on Keane
Monday, February 20, 2006
'There is at least one Glasgow taxi driver who can honestly claim he had Roy Keane in the back of his cab the other day. Keane revealed as much on Friday. It was never going to be a journey conducted in silence, an opportunity like that, but while the driver made an effort to question the Celtic midfielder about life in Glasgow, he did not receive too much back in the way of revealing answers. Keane knows enough about football politics to understand when to be a diplomat.
“He asked me about the standard of football here, but I told him I’ve got to give it time before I judge that,” said Keane. “I’ve only played four or five games and only three of them have been in the middle of the park, which is my position, so it would be wrong of me to make too many statements about Scottish football’s quality.”
Aside from the rather pointed hint at wanting to play central midfield not defence — his league debut was as a centre-half against Kilmarnock — this was Keane in cautious mode. And so it went on for a time in a rare press outing, too. An apology for a “boring answer” here, a refusal “to go over old ground” there; it was as if Keane wasn’t quite being himself. The politeness only faltered when one of the gathered journalists succeeded in riling him.
The inquiry was innocent enough: how had the lead-up to his first Old Firm game been from an emotional perspective? “How many games have I played?” said Keane, quietly, after a long, deliberately menacing pause. “How many do you reckon? Guess.”
The questioner bravely ventured a career tally of around 500. “Try about 800 games,” said Keane. “The Old Firm game was about Celtic trying to keep the gap at the top, not any personal feelings I might have had. I try to prepare for every game I play the same way and know from experience not to get sucked into all that surrounds it.”
Another query as to whether anything about the Ibrox match had surprised him, got the same weary riposte. “I’ve been around the block a few times, you know,” he sighed. “I’m quite aware enough, I’ve been to watch a few Old Firm games so there were no shocks to me in that way. With the points gap between the clubs being what it is, it maybe lacked that cutting edge for their supporters and the early goal killed it off as well. It didn’t help their cause, but there was an enjoyment from our side because we won.”
What Keane did reluctantly accept is that his own performance at Rangers gave him some personal satisfaction. He didn’t say as much, but it was a game he needed. Even with everything he has done, negative judgments about him as a player will still matter and the issue of how much he really had left to give to Celtic had been a persistent one. The disaster that was his debut, the Scottish Cup exit to Clyde that first prompted the suggestion he was unsuited to playing alongside Neil Lennon, was followed by a minor hamstring injury that saw a remarkably low-key comeback; an unused substitute against Dundee United, his non-appearance blamed on an untimely toilet break, then only allowed from the bench in the closing moments of the CIS Cup semi-final victory over Motherwell. His only flurry of action that night was applauding the Celtic fans at the end. By the close of that week, his absence from training on the Friday had the Glasgow rumour mill producing gossip at record levels with even heavily unsubstantiated talk of a possible Keane walkout.
When asked on Friday, however, if he had been concerned at not starting Celtic matches, Keane shook his head. “Nah, nah,” he insisted. “Again, I’ve got a lot of experience to fall back on. In the position I play the players have done really well in previous years so you’ve got to be patient. The fact is I’ve come to a new club, I’ve had to come back from an injury (a broken foot sustained against Liverpool for Manchester United on September 18) all these things come into it so I’ve had to be patient with myself. After the first few games I realised it would take a few more before I would be where I wanted to be. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had two full games in my own position and I feel I’m getting there now.”
So is he now close to being in optimum condition? “The last time I could say that was about 1998, I reckon,” came the quip back. He has always done a nice line in self-deprecating humour.
Mention of his first Celtic goal against Falkirk and Keane was at it again, though, with the been there and seen it talk. “Scoring doesn’t bother me in the least,” he shrugged. “People look at me as a holding midfielder, but in certain games there will be opportunities to get further forward.” This is what separates him from Lennon; he can do everything the Celtic captain can, but more. Like being able to shoot straight. Lennon has not netted for Celtic since December 2001. As for how well he combined with Lennon at Ibrox, Keane was non-committal. “That’s one game, you know,” he said. “The manager has different options. Neil and Stilian (Petrov have been as consistent as anybody in the last few years, but if I can add something to the squad, all the better.”
Getting Manchester United out of his system was never going to be straightforward. You cannot spend 12-and-a-half years at one club for it not to have been. What he did eventually concede was that Celtic has taken some adapting to after Old Trafford. For all his previous experience, this is a new one. “It was always going to be strange,” said Keane, who is still living in a hotel. “At a new club you’ve got to get used to a different dressing room, different banter, different training ground, different pre-match preparations; because I had such a routine at my old club all these things come into consideration. If anything, I think it’s opened my eyes to how hard it must be for other players, especially those coming from different countries. At least I’m here from just down the road.
“You’ve got your own pride, of course, you want to do well, but you’ve got to be realistic. It’s getting used to new players’ ways, their strengths and weaknesses, and for them to get used to me. I loved it at Manchester United, but I’ve moved onto a new challenge. I came up here to be competitive, to try and win trophies. That’s what the fans demand and the kind of pressure I enjoy. I wouldn’t like to have gone to a midtable club that wasn’t going anywhere.”
And how does he feel about going to East End Park and playing Dunfermline today? “It’s different,” he smiled knowingly, “but it’s nice, too, you know what I mean. Coming up against different opposition, different grounds, it’s all new and that’s the reason I came up here. I’d had 15 or 16 years in the Premiership. I’m looking forward to Sunday, but no further ahead than that. You don’t know what’s round the corner in terms of your form or maybe an injury. You can’t start to get carried away, it’s when you think, ‘Ah, I’m there’, and your head takes off, that’s when you’re in trouble.”
Which is why Keane was never going to dwell on being outstanding against Rangers. Not when there is another game to be played today at the same level. His rationale is unflinching, it is all about standards. “You have to be aware,” said Keane in closing, “that football always has it in it to come and kick you in the teeth.”