JUST last week there was a short YouTube video doing the rounds on social media of Roy Keane during his playing days.
The compilation of clips celebrated Keane’s mastery of the simple pass.
It was a glowing reminder of just how great a footballer Keane was.
As his playing career progressed, the great thing about the Cork man was his ability to adapt.
A prolific box-to-box midfielder in his younger days, a combination of injury, age and subtle tactical changes to the way the game was being played saw Keane re-invent himself as a deep-lying midfielder.
Midway through a quite brilliant career, he became the man charged with protecting his back four as well as initiating attacks with simple passes from his sentry position.
He still got forward in games but his runs were more sparing, more thoughtful but still devastating.
By the time he’d finished playing, the box-to-box midfielder was on the verge of extinction.
Everybody was playing in zones. There was no desire among the coaching fraternity to have a player freelancing all over the pitch in Braveheart fashion.
Yet, despite all the changes in the game, Keane remained relevant right up to the dying embers of his playing career with Celtic in 2006.
More than that, he inspired those around him – sometimes out of fear but mostly out of setting the right example on the field of play.
Keane didn’t do step-overs or back heels.
He didn’t have a box of tricks for the casual fan to drool over.
He rarely dribbled past opponents.
For all of his renowned ferociousness, Keane’s game was all about simplicity. Intelligence was his greatest trait.
“Technique,” the late Johan Cryuff once said, “is not being able to juggle a ball 1,000 times. Anyone can do that by practising. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate.”
At first glance, the recent social media video of Keane’s passing ability looked thoroughly underwhelming.
But, on closer inspection, each pass was a thing of beauty.
Having great on-field intelligence is one thing; imparting it is quite another.
Apart from guiding Sunderland to the English Premiership in 2006/07, however, Keane’s managerial career has floundered.
You always imagine great players will make great managers. But it rarely works out that way.
Martin O’Neill resurrected his coaching career by taking him in as his number two with the Republic of Ireland – and their partnership proved a success until the wheels came off in 2018.
Apart from O’Neill, nobody has taken a chance on Keane. The only calls he gets these days are from broadcast companies to give them a ratings boost.
In fairness, he’s shown his adeptness for TV punditry. While working for Sky Sports last April, he clashed with Gary Neville after they’d watched Manchester City defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Keane was right to castigate some of United’s defending on the night.
Neville tried to defend the United players and instead threw flowers at Pep Guardiola's gameplan.
In the subsequent post-match discussion on social media and indeed mainstream media, both Keane and fellow pundit Graeme Souness were denounced as yesterday's men who no longer understood football's modern-day nuances, that the game was more intellectual than they were giving it credit for.
Of course, it was all bunkum. Football's new intelligentsia have proven themselves adept at creating a talking point when there isn’t one.
Sometimes lazy defending is simply that: lazy defending.
Keane, as he does, divided opinion that night.
But I felt his argument, alongside Souness’s, stood up to scrutiny.
Keane, especially since he’s retired from playing, has always been viewed with a healthy ambivalence.
He’s a bit like Marmite.
With his mischievous grin, you were sometimes not quite sure if the laugh was on us rather than him when he'd say something controversial.
His comments about former managers or team-mates could be cutting at times, almost cartoon-esque.
Every time he does an interview, Twitter goes crazy where everyone dissects and debates every syllable he’s uttered.
But on Wednesday night, appearing on Off The Ball’s popular road show, Keane went a step too far in his criticism of former Republic of Ireland striker Jonathan Walters.
There has always been a personal edge between the pair ever since they clashed while Keane managed Ipswich Town and Walters played under him.
And last year, they clashed again on international duty.
Stephen Ward’s subsequent ‘leaked’ WhatsApp message painted an unflattering image of Keane’s man-management skills and shone a light on his unerring ability to cause tension in the group.
Walters would retire from football less than a year later and Keane and O’Neill were duly sacked by the FAI.
Walters won 54 caps and was one of the bravest players ever to wear the green jersey.
In a couple of notable interviews, Walters has opened up about the loss of his mother when he was just 11 and how he felt “lost” while trying to make a career in football.
In more recent times, Walters broke down in tears on RTE’s The Late, Late Show where he mourned the loss of his brother, aged 35 and how his wife lost their baby just a day after his brother’s passing.
To compound his family’s woes, he also revealed his daughter had been diagnosed with Scoliosis.
It was a heart-wrenching interview for which Walters was warmly praised for talking so openly and was very much seen as a great ambassador for mental well-being.
On Wednesday night, Keane poked fun at Walters for crying on TV about his family situation.
It was the kind of comment that diminishes you as a person.
And yet, Keane wonders why nobody will take a chance on him other than TV and radio companies.
Roy Keane was a great player back in his day who everyone admired, grudgingly or otherwise.
But he should think long and hard about his thoughtless comments against Jonathan Walters and his family, and then he should apologise.
