Roy Keane the manager: The best stories from his first spell coaching Sunderland
Roy Keane is one of the most talked-about pundits and players in English football, but what do we know about Roy Keane the manager?
The Irishman appeared close to returning to the dugout with former club Sunderland but after days (weeks? months?) of speculation it seems he is set to be overlooked for the role.
Roy Keane the player is one we all know and love and arguably the greatest to grace the Premier League. But what do we really know about Roy Keane the manager? We take a look at stories from those who played for him, employed him, and from the man himself to try to paint the picture.
'You're sh**, but enjoy being sh**'
In his book Rise of the Underdog - My Life Inside Football, Danny Higginbotham revealed Keane's pre-match team-talk ahead of out-of-form Sunderland's Premier League clash with Aston Villa.
"I scored after 10 minutes and we were leading at half-time. We ended up drawing.
'Sit the f**k down!'
Sunderland were an even more chaotic club when Keane joined the first time than they are now, and that meant a flurry of transfer activity.
Within a day of being appointed manager, Keane had signed six players and that meant a bloated squad needed to be trimmed down. One of those to be shown the door was winger Andy Welsh, who didn't have the best of experiences.
"I'd just signed a three-year deal in the summer," Welsh said. "I remember going into Roy Keane in one of the first meetings after this had happened - sorry he pulled me in - and he said there are a few clubs come in on loan for you.
"As I've gone to stand up he's gone 'Sit the f**k down.' He's started walking round the table and he's gone, 'I don't know who you think you are, walking out on me. I'm walking out on you.'
'Not many people text me…'
The infamous kung-fu kick
"I was trying to generate a bit of banter…"
One thing Keane the player and Keane the pundit have in common, though, is that goalkeepers have their work cut out to impress him.
"I put the gloves on and I said that if they could get the ball past me I'd give them £1,000 each but, if they missed, they'd have to give me £100," Keane recalled in his autobiography following a disappointing performance from stopper Craig Gordon.
"Eight or nine players lined up, and I knew that Craig and the other goalkeepers were p**sed off with it. They didn't even look at my goalkeeping skills. They just did their stretches.
'I can't be f***ing signing that'
Robbie Savage was a big character on the pitch with the kind of niggle and nuisance factor Keane could appreciate.
"Robbie's legs were going a bit but I thought he might come up to us [at Sunderland] with his long hair and give us a lift - the way Yorkie [Dwight Yorke] had, a big personality in the dressing room.
"I never called him back. I thought: 'I can't be f**king signing that'."
'That, for me, is top management'
Ferdinand recalled one particular game at Blackburn when Sunderland trailed at half-time, and obviously Keane wasn't all that thrilled about it.
"All of a sudden, Roy was like, 'Who's going to grab this game by the scruff of the neck? Who's got the b**locks to do this and do that'," Ferdinand continued. "Then he looks at me and goes, 'We all know you won't, Anton, because you ain't got any b**locks, have ya?'
"I was steaming in, after, to go, 'What? I got no b**locks, have I?' and Roy was there, at the door, waiting for me. He put his hand out, pulled me in and said, 'I knew we were going to f**king win anyway!' And he giggled. That, for me, is top management."
'Good answer…'
"He started: 'This is your f**king problem. Get together'. He pointed at me and went: 'Do you think you are good enough to play for the first team?' I was a young lad and I looked up to Roy a lot as a player and as a manager and to be fair I went, 'yeah, I do'.
'He did something I didn't know was possible'
Quinn headed a consortium that bought Sunderland in 2006 and Keane rewarded his faith by delivering promotion within months of his appointment.
"Roy came and everything was glorious," Quinn told the Irish Times in 2019.
It is a point of view that his seconded by his captain at the club, Dean Whitehead.