Roy Keane, I Love You Because...

prenton

Taken from Football365

ROY KEANE, I LOVE YOU BECAUSE...

Sunday May 26 2002

Football365 reader Stephen Hall loves the former Irish captain because he's got balls. Lovely thought. He says he'll be supporting England and France in this World Cup after the Irish sent home their finest player.

Stephen has won an F365 t-shirt for his trouble - and you could win one too by writing 400 words (ish) on your favourite footballer/manager/tradition and send it to theeditor@football365.com <mailto:theeditor@football365.com> (putting 'I Love You Because' in the subject field).

Take it away, Stephen...
I LOVE Roy Keane because he is the consummate professional. I love the fact that he does not tolerate fools easily and lets everyone know how things should be done.

I love the way he was the only Irish player with the balls to take on the FAI when all their officials (and I use that description lightly ) were flying first class while our athletes were sitting at the back of the plane in cramped conditions in economy.

I love that you risked the wrath of the FAI and went ahead with the interview that revealed this.
When something is not done right it should be pointed out by the manager - but if he is too weak to get something done, then it has to be left to the captain.

I love the way he disagreed with Mick McCarthy after we drew 2-2 with Holland after losing a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes. I love that he said we should be expecting to win these games and that we should not tolerate being second best anymore.

I love the way he is the best Irish player and yet he stays out of the limelight (until this week).
I love that he was man enough to criticise his fellow professionals' attitudes and the famous Irish belief that it does not matter how you do as long as you had the craic. It bloody does matter and Roy makes sure they all know this.

I love the way he keeps his private life to himself and does not chase after the media so that they write love songs about him. I love that when he does charity work there is not a documentary being made about him at the same time.

I love the way he always wants to win and I especially love the fact that he stood up for himself at the World Cup when he was being set up by Mick McCarthy.

Roy, I love that you now know how pathetic some of the Irish players are and that they would not stand up and be counted and admit you were right about the build up to the World Cup and the dangerous pitch you were forced to train on. It is not a holiday camp and the build up should be used to acclimatise and train properly.

I love your all-action displays and the fact that if we are 12-0 down (and this will probably happen without your leadership) with five minutes to go, you will still be running your heart and soul out (and yet people still used to say you were not committed to the cause).

I love that you would not tolerate the sub-standard conditions that our FAI set us up with.
I love Ireland and their football team but I will not be watching them now. For the next few weeks I will support England and France because the best footballer of my generation, and the reason those FAI officials have a free holiday in Japan with their wives and partners, will not be over there.

Roy - you are the man because you stood up for what you believed in.
You probably should not have blown it at the players' meeting but I can understand how you did because I hate dealing with fools myself.

BKtje

pretty obvious who he's a fan of

Pigman

I think I love the guy who wrote the article! Sums up exactly the feeling I have for Keane and the Irish team at present. I'll still be cheering them tho!

But go Slovenia!

Sand

Yeah agreed - Ive lost all respect for certain players who hadnt the balls to say to Roy what they thought of him until he was a good few thousand miles away- brave men. Itll be interesting to see the next Man United - Sunderland game.