Old pals do battle again

Nov 15 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

EVER since they began their careers at opposite ends of the managerial spectrum, Roy Keane and Paul Ince have been willing one another to greater heights. So it was ironic Ince did Keane no favours this week, writes STUART RAYNER.

Whereas the Irishman has been parachuted into a big but struggling club in Sunderland, Ince was made to work his way up to Blackburn via Macclesfield Town and Milton Keynes Dons.

Keane and Ince spent two seasons as kindred spirits in the Manchester United engine room and the closeness between the pair has been maintained.

“I had a good time with Incey,” Keane recalled. “The funny thing was I remember at United, when Incey left and he was playing for Liverpool, people were building up this thing that we did not like each other. It was quite funny because we actually got on quite well. Was it a good partnership at Old Trafford? Well, I thought it was pretty decent, yeah.”

Ince has spoken about how Keane – notorious reluctant to use a mobile phone – kept his spirits up at the start of his managerial career.

“I do not remember a particularly hard time,” the Irishman said. “I just made a few texts and calls. I wanted him to do well. When he became manager, like Tony Adams and Gareth Southgate, you obviously wish each other well.”

Ince nicknamed himself ‘The Guv’nor’ and after he left Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson was heard during a fly-on-the-wall documentary calling his former player a “big time Charlie”. It added to the impression Ince had the kind of personality Keane loathes.

“Again that was all blown our of all proportion, Big Time Charlie, all that,” Keane said. “Incey was a good lad, someone you wanted in your dressing room. That is why I am sure he will go on to become a good manager.

“He was a good character, some people do not like him or are unsure how to take him but I have been in the dressing room and gone to tough grounds and been in social situations. He’s a good lad.”