The bubble bursts on a gladiator who turned into a wimp

Dec 5 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

It has never been easy to predict what Roy Keane is going to do, but his decision to quit was still a major surprise. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards looks at the premature end of a football love affair

IT is a mantra Roy Keane has lived his life by, but if winners never quit and quitters never win what does that make him following his decision to bring his Sunderland reign to such a tame and abrupt conclusion?

Keane always maintained he would never shirk a challenge, that he needed the adrenaline and pressure of a fight, that the prospect of operating in the comfort zone was simply abhorrent to a character as driven and determined as he.

For once, those bold, always slightly confrontational words, have a hollow ring to them from a man who appears to have decided he simply did not have the will, or the means, to carry on as Black Cats boss.

Keane has not only forgotten how to use a razor during the recent slump in form which saw his side lose all but one of their last seven games, he appears to have forgotten the crucial qualities which made him such an astonishing and awe-inspiring figure.

If Keane was true to the image he portrayed he would not have walked away from the Stadium of Light with a polite and “amicable” parting of the ways as it was described by the club’s spin machine yesterday.

Keane the gladiator, Keane the warrior and Keane the leader would have stood his ground, geared up for the fight ahead, admitted his mistakes and got on with trying to repair the damage done to a confidence shattered dressing room.

He may not have succeeded, the slump may have turned into a disaster, but he would have at least been able to look at the man in the mirror and know he had given it his all. That, you would have thought, would have been paramount to his sense of self.

Instead, a manager who just weeks ago was being talked about as a realistic successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United will be widely perceived as just another fantastic player who has failed to cut it as a manager, an old boys club already well populated by former Red Devil stars like Bryan Robson and Sir Bobby Charlton.

It is compelling to suggest that, at 37, with a large family at home, with a trophy cabinet full of medals, and with several million pounds stashed in the bank, the desire which fuelled Keane throughout a remarkable playing career no longer burns with the same intensity. There is, after all, a time in every man’s life when naked ambition gives way to a longing for an easy life.

We do not know exactly why Keane decided he had had enough, but the indication from those within the Stadium of Light is he came to the conclusion he had taken the club as far as he could.

Having raised expectations steadily since he was appointed in August 2006, Keane suffered a crisis of confidence when he realised he was struggling, for the first time, to match them.

In many respects, Keane has been a victim of his own ambition. In the summer, when I spoke to him on Sunderland’s pre-season tour of Portugal, he declared with a steely stare that he thrived on the pressure he was creating for himself, that he would, in short, not want it any other way.

He pushed the board to provide him with money to spend because he strived to sign a higher calibre of player. If that meant Sunderland’s supporters anticipated more than just a fight to stay in the top flight this season, it was the potential of the club to compete with the elite of English football which had attracted him to take the job in the first place.

Having taken Sunderland back to the Premier League and kept them there, and with his cult of personality stamped all over the club, Keane, as ever, got his way. The Drumaville Consortium and the secretive new American investor Ellis Short opened the chequebook again and in came the proven Premier League players Keane hankered for. With ten new arrivals, Keane took his spending as Black Cats boss past the £80m mark, a remarkable amount for a rookie manager at a club of Sunderland’s size. Keane’s record in the transfer market, though, was at best inconsistent.

For every success story like Kenwyne Jones, Steed Malbranque and Djibril Cissé there was a catastrophe like Rade Prica, Greg Halford and Russell Anderson.

It is understood several members of the Drumaville consortium behind chairman Niall Quinn had complained about an appalling waste of money and, with such an over-populated first-team squad, doubts about Keane’s suitability had begun to surface in the Black Cats hierarchy.

The Irishman did not appreciate being questioned by businessmen who had never played the game. Keane had wanted more big-name players with big-game reputations like El-Hadji Diouf and Pascal Chimbonda, but he quickly learned some come with even bigger egos which had an unhelpful effect on dressing-room dynamics. Keane tried to rule the first-team squad with absolute authority, but there has been an unseen power struggle behind the scenes as some of the new arrivals challenged that supremacy with their behaviour and inconsistent performances on the pitch.

Keane made no secret of the fact he modelled himself on Brian Clough, but his former manager at Nottingham Forest’s greatest strength was his man-management skills.

There is more to being a manager than strict discipline, clever tactics and inspirational words for team talks and Keane has come up short in the area that made his mentor such a phenomenal success.

Yet, as Keane prepares to spend more time with his young family at home in Cheshire and we scrutinise his controversial decision to quit, it is worth emphasising that, for all of the mistakes and for all of the criticism the vast majority of Sunderland supporters will still be sorry to see him leave.

Unlike most managers who part company with a football club, Keane retains the affection and support of those who follow it, which is why his decision is so disappointing.

Sunderland are a completely different club to the one Keane joined in August 2006, with better players and a better reputation that at any time in their recent history.

It is just a shame he decided that was as good as it was going to get with him at the helm.

He well may live to regret his decision.