No more Mr Nasty Guy

So Roy Keane’s a nasty, mean-spirited little streak of misery is he? Don’t believe a word of it!

I’ve had people say to me “Jesus, he’s a moody git!” and “What a bastard!” but that’s not been my experience. The Roy Keane I know is a quiet, well-mannered bloke who enjoys going out for a meal and having a laugh. With his wife, Theresa, and my wife, Caroline, being best friends, we socialise quite a bit together and always have a great evening. I do see him being interviewed sometimes and think, “Come on mate, lighten up!” – but to me he’s a good friend who I’ve known and got on with since he came into the Irish squad as a baby.

As for “mean-spirited”, that’s way off the mark. Roy does regular bits of charity work for me when he’s in Ireland and he’s never said, “Look, make sure there’s a photographer there.” He just jumps in the cab and goes quietly to the hospital or wherever. I’ve always found him very helpful in relation to that sort of thing.

Now it doesn’t take a genius, but I knew his book would cause controversy because one of Roy’s strengths – and weaknesses – is that he gives it to you straight. Too straight sometimes!

While I respect the fact that he hasn’t skirted around the issue, I’m still shocked that he’s said what he has in relation to Alf Inge Haaland. Whatever about Roy’s desire to be honest, you’d have thought that Michael Kennedy, or one of his other advisors, would’ve read the proofs and gone, “Whoa, that’s a bit too close to the bone and going to get us all into trouble!”. Whoever did or didn’t read it – and we know that Alex Ferguson had a look – Roy was very badly advised in that regard and, as a consequence, is going to have the book thrown at him by The Football Association – well, maybe not literally! I think the FA will wait to see what Alf Inge Haaland’s and Manchester City’s response is, and then take their own action – which I imagine will be more than fining Roy a few weeks’ wages.

Given the furore it’s caused, he’ll be lucky to escape without a match ban, which will hurt him more than any amount of money will. What’s more, I don’t think he can have any complaints, really. Seasoned pro that he is, he knows what constitutes an FA disrepute charge.

While I’m not excusing what he did on the pitch, he’s not the first player to settle a score that way, and he certainly won’t be the last. Somebody cracks your cheekbone one season, you go in with an over-the-top tackle the next. That’s the way it tends to work. As quiet as I was, a few things were said to me during games that made me think, ‘Okay, it mightn’t be today but I’ll get you for that!’

I wasn’t too vindictive in that respect but there were players I just didn’t like, and if it was possible to go into a challenge with them extra hard, I did. Not for sinister reasons of wanting to end their career but because, in my mind, they had it coming.

The usual reasons for footballers writing books is money or – as was the case with me and Ooh Aah Paul McGrath – ego! Once I had my name on the front cover, I didn’t really care what was in it. In fact, I was so hands-off that I got a couple of friends to read the proofs.

Roy, being a wealthy lad and used to seeing his name in print, doesn’t fit either of those norms. Clearly, his motivation is wanting to put the record straight. I respect that he might have been better keeping his head down for a while after the World Cup – but having decided to go with it, there was no way it was going to be less than 100% frank. Doubly so with Eamon Dunphy doing the writing!

Dunphy is very similar to Roy, in that he doesn’t pull punches and goes in there all guns blazing – which is what makes him my type of fella. When I heard he was ghosting the book, I thought, “Great, he’ll put his own imprint on it.” And there’s a lot of Eamon in the extracts I’ve read, especially the use of “fuck” every second word – which isn’t how Roy talks.

While we tend to agree on most things, my opinion of Mick McCarthy would be a lot different from Roy’s. I enjoyed his company because he had a great wit and he made you laugh. As a manager, we didn’t have the best of times because I wasn’t in the team much – but he did have the good manners to ring the house and explain that he was going for younger players.

The one thing Mick did that I thought was out of order was bringing me back into the squad, aged 37, and then sending me home as the one player who had to be cut from the squad of 23. Having played 82 or 83 games for Ireland at that stage, it was an awful kick in the teeth. If I was so borderline, he shouldn’t have bothered bringing me. That said, we’ve met several times since at dinners, and he couldn’t have been nicer.

Book or no book, there’s not a chance in hell at this stage of Roy and Mick sorting their differences out. Which, with Ireland beating Finland and looking good for Euro 2004, means that Roy could conceivably have played his last international game. I imagine the blood will become even worse when Mick responds to what’s been said about him in his own book. It’s a vicious circle, which neither of them seem interested in breaking.

I have to say that whole the whole Roy vs. Mick debate seems a bit petty compared to the appalling threats that were made last week against Neil Lennon. He’s been very brave to hang on as long as he has, but when pictures of you with a noose round your neck start appearing in your hometown, it’s understandable that he wants out. I played against him a few times, and have seen him up at Celtic and he really is a lovely, lovely lad. It’s disgraceful when that sort of politics comes into football.

I never got the death threats, but I did experience the unpleasant side of Northern Ireland football when we played them at Windsor Park in the 1993 World Cup qualifier. I’ve never in my life experienced a nastier, more hateful atmosphere. I spent the whole 90 minutes worried out of my mind because Caroline was in the stands cheering us on.

It’s bad enough when that sort of thing is coming from the opposition but when it’s your own so-called supporters, forget it! No wonder Neil decided to knock it on the head.

I’m a big Bill Shankly fan – but he was wrong about there being nothing more important than football. Amid all the controversy about Roy Keane, people would do well to remember that.