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Ranty O'Rant
Feb. 22nd, 2009 12:49 pmThe gall of the man. I have just read this on the Sky site and I'm with Booth on the situation.
No man, not even Roy Keane, is bigger than a football club, not even Sunderland. I always did find him arrogant but followed Niall's lead and gave the man a chance to be a manager. Well, this article proves how unready he was for the job. What he saw as weakness others saw as management skills;what he saw as ingratitude, others saw as acknowledgement of where a player had come from; what he saw as irritations, others saw as expectations pf how a manager has to deal with authority. Keane liked to be in charge, but didn't like the baggage that inevitably comes with the responsiblity of looking after young men who cannot have the driven attitude that Keane himself possessed.
The demand for perfection is all well and good when you are dealing with top professionals a la Manchester United. But when you are involved with journeymen footballers, you have to lower your sights and get in touch with reality. Just because you pay a lot of money for a player doesn't make him a good player. Just because you were an outstandingly gifted player does not make you automatically an outstandingly gifted manager. He played under two of the greatest managers ever to be seen in English football: Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough. Indeed, as a young player learning his trade, it was Clough who proved to be a great influence on Keane. He may well have tried to manage in the mould of Clough and Ferguson, but he seems to have forgotten one thing: Clough took Nottingham Forest from obscurity to the European Championship final and won, when the competition was against the Champions of the rest of Europe. He did that by force of personality, the arm round the shoulder when needed, starting his career at Hartlepool, the least successful club in history, and having a coach in Peter Taylor who knew what he was doing.
Similarly, the well-documented success of Sir Alex has included a coach (Brian Kidd, Carlos Queiros et al) who, behind the scenes, has produced world beating football. Of course, you cannot compare Wayne Rooney with Djibril Cisse or Christiano Ronaldo with Andy Reid, but Keane apparently did. Remember, Manchester United have been successful in recent years but it was a different story 20 years ago. What Keane lacked was patience. He demanded instance success, but didn't know how to get it. He must have been pleased that he got promotion a year sooner than anticipated. That got him where he wanted to be, but the hard graft needed to sustain Premiership status with less than brilliant players turned out not to be to Keane's taste.
I am disappointed to have read what I did in the extracts from the Irish Times, but I am not surprised. Keane has always been an outspoken maverick and while many applauded his honesty, others were head shaking at his crass disregard for team members who were left to carry the colours whether it be for Eire or Manchester. Remember how the media cheered his 'prawn sandwich brigade' tirade? Well they may have been more interested in being seen at Old Trafford than in the match, but their money was going into the coffers of the club that paid Keane's wages. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
I could go on but that would be counter-productive. If you're not a Sunderland AFC fan the deep feeling of hurt is meaningless to you. If you are then I'm sure you have your own feelings on the Bhoy. I just think he was given the chance to be a manager by a man he belittled in his autobiography and when things weren't going the way that suited Keane he did what he always does and walked away, claiming the moral high ground of course.
Ricky Sbragia has taken the same group of players and got them playing together and producing results which while not earth-shattering have got them up to 10th in the table and nearer to safety from relegation than I think Keane would have. He has chosen the team on performance; he has taken them off to Seville to get away from the 'boring' training ground. Even when his plans have been disrupted by injury he has got a result at Arsenal. I think that he is doing a lower profile but better job at Sunderland. He knows he is not bigger than the club. He has worked at several clubs as the coach whom players know and respect. That will do for me at this stage in our progress.
No man, not even Roy Keane, is bigger than a football club, not even Sunderland. I always did find him arrogant but followed Niall's lead and gave the man a chance to be a manager. Well, this article proves how unready he was for the job. What he saw as weakness others saw as management skills;what he saw as ingratitude, others saw as acknowledgement of where a player had come from; what he saw as irritations, others saw as expectations pf how a manager has to deal with authority. Keane liked to be in charge, but didn't like the baggage that inevitably comes with the responsiblity of looking after young men who cannot have the driven attitude that Keane himself possessed.
The demand for perfection is all well and good when you are dealing with top professionals a la Manchester United. But when you are involved with journeymen footballers, you have to lower your sights and get in touch with reality. Just because you pay a lot of money for a player doesn't make him a good player. Just because you were an outstandingly gifted player does not make you automatically an outstandingly gifted manager. He played under two of the greatest managers ever to be seen in English football: Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough. Indeed, as a young player learning his trade, it was Clough who proved to be a great influence on Keane. He may well have tried to manage in the mould of Clough and Ferguson, but he seems to have forgotten one thing: Clough took Nottingham Forest from obscurity to the European Championship final and won, when the competition was against the Champions of the rest of Europe. He did that by force of personality, the arm round the shoulder when needed, starting his career at Hartlepool, the least successful club in history, and having a coach in Peter Taylor who knew what he was doing.
Similarly, the well-documented success of Sir Alex has included a coach (Brian Kidd, Carlos Queiros et al) who, behind the scenes, has produced world beating football. Of course, you cannot compare Wayne Rooney with Djibril Cisse or Christiano Ronaldo with Andy Reid, but Keane apparently did. Remember, Manchester United have been successful in recent years but it was a different story 20 years ago. What Keane lacked was patience. He demanded instance success, but didn't know how to get it. He must have been pleased that he got promotion a year sooner than anticipated. That got him where he wanted to be, but the hard graft needed to sustain Premiership status with less than brilliant players turned out not to be to Keane's taste.
I am disappointed to have read what I did in the extracts from the Irish Times, but I am not surprised. Keane has always been an outspoken maverick and while many applauded his honesty, others were head shaking at his crass disregard for team members who were left to carry the colours whether it be for Eire or Manchester. Remember how the media cheered his 'prawn sandwich brigade' tirade? Well they may have been more interested in being seen at Old Trafford than in the match, but their money was going into the coffers of the club that paid Keane's wages. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
I could go on but that would be counter-productive. If you're not a Sunderland AFC fan the deep feeling of hurt is meaningless to you. If you are then I'm sure you have your own feelings on the Bhoy. I just think he was given the chance to be a manager by a man he belittled in his autobiography and when things weren't going the way that suited Keane he did what he always does and walked away, claiming the moral high ground of course.
Ricky Sbragia has taken the same group of players and got them playing together and producing results which while not earth-shattering have got them up to 10th in the table and nearer to safety from relegation than I think Keane would have. He has chosen the team on performance; he has taken them off to Seville to get away from the 'boring' training ground. Even when his plans have been disrupted by injury he has got a result at Arsenal. I think that he is doing a lower profile but better job at Sunderland. He knows he is not bigger than the club. He has worked at several clubs as the coach whom players know and respect. That will do for me at this stage in our progress.
