Keane: The Autobiography

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Roy was unbelievable to play alongside and someone you could always trust. I soon learned that if you weren’t on your game he would be on top of you to make sure you were playing your part for the team. The focus on the Alex Ferguson feud, the sport's most tiresome quarrel, at Thursday's book launch in Dublin suggested that recent signs of a genuine softening in Keane's thinking and perspective were deceptive. Partly since his work as a TV pundit, and especially in his assistant manager roles, Keane's image has undergone a rebranding not unlike Ryanair's: more appealing to the public, business friendly, fewer baggage issues. On Keane’s display in the Champions League semi-final against Juventus in 1999: “It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. It is the dearth of integrity that makes Pietersen such a peevish, trifling character, and the surfeit that makes Keane so entrancingly epic ... the personification of honest to a fault ... he is as close as sport can offer to an Old Testament prophet. Heroically unconcerned with being loved, almost insanely devoted to telling what he regards as the plain truth, he may not always be engaging. But ... he stands out as utterly and irreducibly true to himself -- Matthew Norman * THE INDEPENDENT * I'm surprised how much Roy Keane's second autobiography made me laugh ... More importantly the book told me that Keane should be the next Manchester United manager. The more I read what he had to say, and his reflections on his two jobs as boss, the more I realised how perfect he would be at Old Trafford -- Adrian Durham * MAIL ONLINE *

The category that this book completes is dairy, autobiography or biography. I found this book interesting because Roy Keane adds a great sence of humour to the book and mainly the fact that i thought most autobiographys were boring and this wasn't. Undoubtedly one of the best midfielders of his generation, Keane is just as well known for his antics off the pitch as he is his brilliant performances on it.Another book that came at me from a car boot sale. For me, it promised lots of inside info into the world of modern professional football. The enigmatic Mr Clough at Nottingham. The Ferguson regime at Old Trafford along with some juicy details of the famous dressing room hairdryer. Also The best things are the small things: regretting joining Ipswich when he discovered the training kit was blue; refusing to sign Robbie Savage because his answerphone message was rubbish; being appalled that his side had listened to an Abba song before playing football' Evening Standard You never felt you were beaten when Keaney was in your team. He never threw in the towel. I don’t think any of the rest of us were less determined to win than Keaney, but what makes him different is the way he gets it across, his anger if you like.

Roddy Doyle is a great writer and, like Dunphy he also captures Keane’s voice well. It takes a few chapters to adjust to the subtly different style compared to the first book, but both feel like authentic Keane. A few anecdotes are repeated but mostly its fresh material.The honesty is enjoyable – no more so than the farcical scene when he tells his children there'll soon be less money in the house – but actually the account of the days and months at Sunderland and Ipswich is too conventional to be truly compelling. Now and then a sports autobiography comes along and breaks the mould (Paul Kimmage's book with Tony Cascarino, for instance) but this isn't one of them. Perhaps it would be unfair to expect even this all-star line-up to do so, and besides, anything further would not fit with Keane's desire for a life more ordinary. We knew that he was a special player, we knew that he loved to have a bit of a moan, but we knew that he could produce the goods week in, week out, and we knew he was a winner.” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer He was the best in midfield; he could play everywhere. He could play the holding role and be defensive, but then he could suddenly burst forward and score goals.

He doesn’t know this, but everybody (in the Manchester United squad when Keane joined) was buzzing to have him there. Keane, who is close to resuming training, will also be absent for league matches against Manchester City, West Ham, Newcastle and Liverpool before a possible return against Arsenal on December 7. But the fact that the FA penalty does not cover European games means the 31-year-old Irish midfielder could play against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on November 13.

A celebration of Alex Ferguson & Arsene Wenger’s ‘snood’ wars

The hearing started at 12.15pm. The prosecution case, featuring video evidence and extracts from the book, was conducted by Jim Sturman QC and lasted an hour and a quarter before Keane gave evidence and was cross-examined for two and a half hours. Dunphy followed, claiming, it is understood, that Keane's comments in the book were unfaithfully reported, before closing statements and deliberation. I won't name names, but most sporting biographies couldn't set an ashtray on fire, let alone a crowd. The best one I've read of late is Roy Keane's The Second Half, which is actually written by Roddy Doyle, of course; and this is why it's good. It's not just Keano himself that makes the book interesting; it's Doyle's writing * Philip Kerr, author of IF THE DEAD RISE NOT and JANUARY WIDOW * When Keane says anything, listening is usually the best option. He's scarily extreme, dangerously provocative, oxy-acetylene forthright ... and hugely entertaining ... Self-desctruction, self-pity, self-laceration - his latest unburdening has all this and more. His book reveals more flaws and admits to more mistakes than Sir Alex Ferguson did in his last literary effort - and Keane's is much funnier -- Aidan Smith * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY * The thing I love about this man is there is nothing he writes down that he would not say to someone's face -- Stan Collymore * THE PEOPLE *

Roy Keane's book is a masterpiece . . . It may well be the finest, most incisive deconstruction of football management that the game has ever produced' Mail on Sunday The book paints a picture of Keane as a hard-working, hard-drinking player who couldn’t always control his temper but always gave his all on the pitch. His tolerance for anything that didn’t meet his standards was incredibly low – yet slightly hypocritical when his own drinking had to be having a damaging impact on his own game. Ultimately Keane’s year out with a cruciate ligament injury combined with growing older helped to temper his drinking and the Roy we meet in the second book has become a health freak. Roy Keane had an exceptional playing career which combined huge achievement with equal amounts of controversy. It’s impossible to have followed English football in the 90’s and naughties and not have a strong opinion either way. For an Irish fan, it’s even harder to not to love or loathe him. Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971 in Mayfield, Cork) is a retired Irish footballer and the manager of English Championship club Ipswich Town.I'd waited long enough. I f****** hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you c***. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries. This was my favourite quote because this cheating player deserved it and the irish man got him. He is one of the best players I have ever seen. Not only that, but he could motivate players too. He was the boss too. He is also a good man.” Darren Fletcher Brutally honest, self-deprecating and critical of everyone. Whether you're a fan of Roy or not, you will see a whole new side of him and his views * THE SUN *