An awful lot can change in twelve years. In August 2002, the memory of Saipan was very fresh in everyone's mind and Roy Keane was busy collecting his thoughts into a bestselling autobiography. On the time, Keane was busy bossing the midfield for Man Utd while one of his nemeses was lining up for Sunderland.
Jason McAteer always possessed an outwardly jovial character that was at odds with Keane's steely determination so it was no surprise that the two never really saw eye to eye. That came to a head at the Stadium of Light on 31 August 2002. Keane and McAteer clashed 20 minutes from the end with the then Sunderland man pulling out the infamous 'write it in your book' retort to which Keane took quite a bit umbrage.
Unsurprisingly, he soon took retribution with a sharp elbow to the back of McAteer's head minutes from the end. Given that referee Uriah Rennie was all of five feet away, it's no surprise that Keane promptly saw red.
McAteer has recently made it clear that any lingering ill-feeling between himself and Keane is as good as gone, but you never know. Keane might have this date marked out on his calendar for the sole purpose of allowing his feelings to fester before letting them die down again for another year.
