Thank god these days are behind us. Remember all the doomsayers saying the end of Utd. was near, following Keane's exit.
This article is an interesting read and puts Ferguson's accomplishments over the last couple of seasons in perspective. The fact that he constantly defies his critics is astounding and is a testement to the man and what he stands for (Be warned, Kind of a long read... but worth it):
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2005/11/20/story9817.asp
Roy Keane's last stand
Sunday, November 20, 2005 - By Ken Early
The row between Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson that ended Keane's Manchester United career has perplexed supporters.
One doubts whether even Keane and Ferguson themselves quite understand what happened.
Even a full transcript of the blazing row that led to Keane's bitter exit might not fully explain how they managed to contrive such a mountain of disaster out of the molehills of disagreement that had marked their relationship over the last few months.
Plainly the drama that unfolded at that meeting was shaped more by rage than by any kind of rationality. But the hardest thing to understand is how the friendship between Keane and Ferguson could have curdled so quickly into boiling resentment.
At the meeting, Keane was reportedly told he would not be offered a new contract, but he had been expecting that.
He had not expected to be asked to give up the captain's armband.
Ferguson is the most decorated coach in football, not because he's a tactical genius or a transfer-market whiz, but because he is a great man-manager, a reader of minds.
He knew Keane would react furiously to such a demand, and it is difficult to conclude that his cynical intention was not to force the player out of the club.
Then again, perhaps that reading of the situation is giving Fergie more Machiavellian credit than he deserves, because Keane's departure mid-season benefits nobody.
Keane has lost a prestigious stg£100,000-a-week job, the like of which he will never have again. But there is also no doubt that his loss diminishes United.
Last season, the team won 63 per cent of the league games Keane played in, but only 42 per cent of the games he missed.
Their collapse in form this season coincided with Keane breaking his foot against Liverpool. Everyone points out that Keane is no longer the force he was, yet he is still better than any of the midfielders currently on Man United's books. At 34 he still wipes the floor with Paul Scholes, Alan Smith, Darren Fletcher and the rest.
Also, if everyone accepts that age eventually withers even the greatest players, can the same rationale not equally be applied to managers? The truth is, the only thing keeping Ferguson in his job is the memory of triumphs that every day recede further into the past.
His blunders in the transfer market are legendary, his tactics widely derided. Fans are angry that his unpopular assistant, Carlos Queiroz, has been given more responsibility at the club, while Ferguson recently bought a horse from the Coolmore magnates who handed their club to Malcolm Glazer in May.
He has filled the team with players who are pale shadows of their predecessors, and already in November it is clear that the team has no chance of winning the title. Any other manager who had made as many mistakes would have been sacked by now.
Keane was the only player at the club with the status and courage to point out those mistakes.
There had been several arguments between Keane, Ferguson and Queiroz over the last few weeks. Ferguson apparently thought these episodes were becoming too damaging to his authority as manager and decided to end them once and for all. He might justify his actions by saying he had rid the dressing room of a disruptive influence.
An alternative view is that he has filled that dressing room with ‘yes men', who will never dare to say a word against him, but who also have no chance of winning major prizes.
It has been evident over the last few years that the less successful Ferguson has become, the more sensitive he has become to criticism. His response to critical comment has usually been to ban the offending media organ.
He has petulantly ignored the BBC since it broadcast a documentary in May 2004 entitled ‘Fergie and Son', which investigated the business affairs of his football agent son Jason. In a ridiculous episode in September, he refused to talk to United's own in-house TV channel, MUTV, after a pundit criticised his tactics during a phone-in.
Remember, David Beckham was sold after he rounded on Ferguson in the dressing room after the manager sent a boot flying into his face. So perhaps it is not that surprising that Ferguson's reaction to Keane's critical remarks in the suppressed MUTV interview was to kick him out. These days, ‘The Boss' specialises in shooting the messenger.
But does Ferguson really think that policy will make the bad news go away?
Keane is not the only one to have noted that the manager's view of the world appears to be increasingly divergent from reality. Two weeks ago, Man United fans watching their side lose to Lille in the Stade de France abused their players and chanted Keane's name.
Ferguson had better hope that Manchester United don't lose any home games in the coming weeks, or the same chant will haunt him as it did Mick McCarthy.
This is not to say Keane is blameless in the affair. He is famous for blunt honesty, but the honesty always seems to take the form of harsh criticism. Constant criticism grates on most people's nerves. It also must be noted that Keane dispenses negative remarks about others far more liberally than positive ones.
Several United players were annoyed that Keane did not come down to the dressing room to congratulate them after their recent victory over Chelsea. Keane would doubtless retort that they didn't deserve hugs and kisses just for doing their job. In the real world, however, most people appreciate a bit of praise when they do their job well.
As for Glazer, he will be happy with the stg£2.5 million that the termination of Keane's contract will save the club between now and June. Though he was idolised by match-going United supporters, Keane was never a big part of the club's branding drive on a global scale - he didn't even travel on the tour of Asia during the summer.
Glazer has bigger problems to think about, such as paying back the £374 million bank loan and £275 million high-interest debt to hedge funds that he forced the club to take on for the privilege of it being owned by him.
It's safe to assume that this will be occupying more of his thoughts than the departure of a mere employee. Some 23 non-playing staff have already been made redundant since Glazer's takeover, while Keane is the 13th player to leave the club in the same period.
The club must now find a replacement for Keane but, given the scale of its debt, they will not have the funds available to buy a player from the top shelf.
Their only hope of replacing Keane with a player of roughly equal ability is to persuade Bayern Munich's Michael Ballack that Manchester United, with its huge debts, average players and powerful domestic rivals, represent a better option than Real Madrid, with their enormous wealth, global stars and unrivalled aura of glamour.
There's next to no chance of that happening.
So the decline of the team is set to continue in tandem with the disillusionment of the supporters. The end of Roy Keane's career at Manchester United marks the definitive end of the club's great era of success. The departure of the manager who presided over that era cannot now be far away.
Ken Early is football correspondent on Newstalk's Off The Ball sports programme.
This article is an interesting read and puts Ferguson's accomplishments over the last couple of seasons in perspective. The fact that he constantly defies his critics is astounding and is a testement to the man and what he stands for (Be warned, Kind of a long read... but worth it):
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2005/11/20/story9817.asp
Roy Keane's last stand
Sunday, November 20, 2005 - By Ken Early
The row between Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson that ended Keane's Manchester United career has perplexed supporters.
One doubts whether even Keane and Ferguson themselves quite understand what happened.
Even a full transcript of the blazing row that led to Keane's bitter exit might not fully explain how they managed to contrive such a mountain of disaster out of the molehills of disagreement that had marked their relationship over the last few months.
Plainly the drama that unfolded at that meeting was shaped more by rage than by any kind of rationality. But the hardest thing to understand is how the friendship between Keane and Ferguson could have curdled so quickly into boiling resentment.
At the meeting, Keane was reportedly told he would not be offered a new contract, but he had been expecting that.
He had not expected to be asked to give up the captain's armband.
Ferguson is the most decorated coach in football, not because he's a tactical genius or a transfer-market whiz, but because he is a great man-manager, a reader of minds.
He knew Keane would react furiously to such a demand, and it is difficult to conclude that his cynical intention was not to force the player out of the club.
Then again, perhaps that reading of the situation is giving Fergie more Machiavellian credit than he deserves, because Keane's departure mid-season benefits nobody.
Keane has lost a prestigious stg£100,000-a-week job, the like of which he will never have again. But there is also no doubt that his loss diminishes United.
Last season, the team won 63 per cent of the league games Keane played in, but only 42 per cent of the games he missed.
Their collapse in form this season coincided with Keane breaking his foot against Liverpool. Everyone points out that Keane is no longer the force he was, yet he is still better than any of the midfielders currently on Man United's books. At 34 he still wipes the floor with Paul Scholes, Alan Smith, Darren Fletcher and the rest.
Also, if everyone accepts that age eventually withers even the greatest players, can the same rationale not equally be applied to managers? The truth is, the only thing keeping Ferguson in his job is the memory of triumphs that every day recede further into the past.
His blunders in the transfer market are legendary, his tactics widely derided. Fans are angry that his unpopular assistant, Carlos Queiroz, has been given more responsibility at the club, while Ferguson recently bought a horse from the Coolmore magnates who handed their club to Malcolm Glazer in May.
He has filled the team with players who are pale shadows of their predecessors, and already in November it is clear that the team has no chance of winning the title. Any other manager who had made as many mistakes would have been sacked by now.
Keane was the only player at the club with the status and courage to point out those mistakes.
There had been several arguments between Keane, Ferguson and Queiroz over the last few weeks. Ferguson apparently thought these episodes were becoming too damaging to his authority as manager and decided to end them once and for all. He might justify his actions by saying he had rid the dressing room of a disruptive influence.
An alternative view is that he has filled that dressing room with ‘yes men', who will never dare to say a word against him, but who also have no chance of winning major prizes.
It has been evident over the last few years that the less successful Ferguson has become, the more sensitive he has become to criticism. His response to critical comment has usually been to ban the offending media organ.
He has petulantly ignored the BBC since it broadcast a documentary in May 2004 entitled ‘Fergie and Son', which investigated the business affairs of his football agent son Jason. In a ridiculous episode in September, he refused to talk to United's own in-house TV channel, MUTV, after a pundit criticised his tactics during a phone-in.
Remember, David Beckham was sold after he rounded on Ferguson in the dressing room after the manager sent a boot flying into his face. So perhaps it is not that surprising that Ferguson's reaction to Keane's critical remarks in the suppressed MUTV interview was to kick him out. These days, ‘The Boss' specialises in shooting the messenger.
But does Ferguson really think that policy will make the bad news go away?
Keane is not the only one to have noted that the manager's view of the world appears to be increasingly divergent from reality. Two weeks ago, Man United fans watching their side lose to Lille in the Stade de France abused their players and chanted Keane's name.
Ferguson had better hope that Manchester United don't lose any home games in the coming weeks, or the same chant will haunt him as it did Mick McCarthy.
This is not to say Keane is blameless in the affair. He is famous for blunt honesty, but the honesty always seems to take the form of harsh criticism. Constant criticism grates on most people's nerves. It also must be noted that Keane dispenses negative remarks about others far more liberally than positive ones.
Several United players were annoyed that Keane did not come down to the dressing room to congratulate them after their recent victory over Chelsea. Keane would doubtless retort that they didn't deserve hugs and kisses just for doing their job. In the real world, however, most people appreciate a bit of praise when they do their job well.
As for Glazer, he will be happy with the stg£2.5 million that the termination of Keane's contract will save the club between now and June. Though he was idolised by match-going United supporters, Keane was never a big part of the club's branding drive on a global scale - he didn't even travel on the tour of Asia during the summer.
Glazer has bigger problems to think about, such as paying back the £374 million bank loan and £275 million high-interest debt to hedge funds that he forced the club to take on for the privilege of it being owned by him.
It's safe to assume that this will be occupying more of his thoughts than the departure of a mere employee. Some 23 non-playing staff have already been made redundant since Glazer's takeover, while Keane is the 13th player to leave the club in the same period.
The club must now find a replacement for Keane but, given the scale of its debt, they will not have the funds available to buy a player from the top shelf.
Their only hope of replacing Keane with a player of roughly equal ability is to persuade Bayern Munich's Michael Ballack that Manchester United, with its huge debts, average players and powerful domestic rivals, represent a better option than Real Madrid, with their enormous wealth, global stars and unrivalled aura of glamour.
There's next to no chance of that happening.
So the decline of the team is set to continue in tandem with the disillusionment of the supporters. The end of Roy Keane's career at Manchester United marks the definitive end of the club's great era of success. The departure of the manager who presided over that era cannot now be far away.
Ken Early is football correspondent on Newstalk's Off The Ball sports programme.
