There are varying takes on Roy Keane as a manager. Darren O'Dea recently told Balls.ie that Keane was "very good, pragmatic" and didn't demand anything unreasonable of his players at Ipswich. Another former Ipswich player, Shane Supple, continued along similar lines, saying that Keane was "brilliant" when he told him he wanted to leave the club. Andy Reid actually once called Keane a "really calming influence".
But it's fairly evident that there are two sides to the Corkman. Richie Sadlier, for example, said that when he left Sunderland Keane was "really sound" and "couldn't have been more helpful". But when Sadlier wrote an interview piece with Clive Clarke in which Clarke was very critical of Keane, it wasn't long before Keane was "in full rant mode" into Sadlier's ear on the phone.
One man who played under Keane at Sunderland is East Fife striker Kevin Smith, who played under Keane at Sunderland. Smith was speaking to the Scottish Sun newspaper and what he said about Keane perhaps elucidates the different sides of the Manchester United legend.
Smith was asked who the best manager he had worked with was, and his answer speaks volumes about Keane's attitude to the game:
Roy Keane was different class. His knowledge of football was unreal and he wasn’t the ranter and raver people expect him to be.
His big thing was always about being a team, it’s not about individuals. Craig Levein and Gary Naysmith were also brilliant bosses.
But he produced a fairly hilarious story showing the other side of the Republic of Ireland assistant manager when asked what it was like playing under Keane at Sunderland at the time Dwight Yorke was there. Keane signed his former team-mate, but that didn't stop him treating Yorke like any other player under his command when Yorke suffered from technological failings:
He was brilliant. My best Roy Keane story was between him and Dwight Yorke.
Dwight bought this fancy watch which runs off your pulse or something but turned up late for training and blamed it on that.
Keane went mental and sent him home from training. I just remember how surreal it was watching two of my Manchester United heroes arguing with each other.
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