If you haven't realised by now, Roy Keane, aside from having been a fairly decent footballer, is also rather good for a quote or two. In an era when the majority of press conferences range from excruciatingly boring through to ass-clenchingly mundane, Keane is always a welcome distraction from statements such as 'we're just taking each game as it comes' (fascinating), 'we're not going to under-estimate Gibraltar, they've got some quality players in their side' (the carpenter up front has been on fire), and 'I'm just getting the head down and working hard' (aren't we all).
Ans speaking of ass-clenchingly mundane, a common topic of discussion around the time of major football championships such as Euro 2016 is player boredom. Sitting around the hotel during the day, with endless hours to kill after training and an inability to escape due to the hordes of media watching their every move, players are often driven to weird and wonderful ways of entertaining themselves, as Richard Sadlier famously once described.
Wayne Rooney recently bemoaned the "boredom" that he often experiences at major tournaments - not the first time the England captain has complained about not being fully amused on tour.
But Keane doesn't have any time for players who complain to him that they are bored, taking a typically no-nonsense view of it when Balls.ie asked him about the oft-highlighted issue, and what he used to do to occupy his time:
What did I do when I was a player? Played cards, watched television, listened to a bit of music. Read. Ring home. Nobody ever usually answered, but you'd try!
I think there's been a big thing made of this boredom thing, but I dunno, I think that modern players now, whether it be iPads...I don't think it's a problem. And we give the players decent freedom, whether it be going out for coffees or whatever. I think we're in a nice location, they'll have freedom to stroll around, go for coffee, whatever it may be.
And usually when people say they're bored, that's because they're boring.
No, it is, most people who say to me they're bored, I look at them and I'm (thinking), 'You look boring alright.' You have to think outside the box. Lying on your bed all day, thinking, 'Oh...' You have to get up! Go for a bike ride. Go for a swim. Chat with the staff. Drink, like we do, 20 cups of tea every couple of hours. Card school. Whatever you want to do.
Typical straight-talking advice from Roy, who we are reassured to hear hasn't deviated from the Irish tradition of consuming an inordinate amount of the warm brown stuff. And of course none of the players will be bored during the course of the tournament-they'll be too busy following Balls.ie's insanely adequate coverage of the happenings in France throughout the course of the championships.
