Players Who Will Be Remembered For The Wrong Reasons, Part 6
Roy Maurice Keane is a former Irish footballer and currently manages English Championship side Ipswich Town. In his career as a player, which lasted 18 years, he played for Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Celtic.
He debuted with local club Cobh Ramblers, often having to play twice in the same weekend. He was a dedicated player, surviving the tough physical challenges and doing better than most experienced players. In the FAI Youth Cup match against Belvedere FC Keane
performed brilliantly and got noticed by a Nottingham Forest.
He transferred to Nottingham for a fee of £47,000, and despite getting off to a poor start he slowly began to settle down. His debut came for the under-21 side in a pre season tournament in Holland. It was during that tour in the final against Haarlem that
Keane scored the winning penalty and won his side the competition. He soon secured his place in the first team and had his debut in the professional league in the 1990-19991 season against Liverpool. His good form encouraged the manager, Clough, to play him
more and soon scored his first professional goal against Sheffield United.
He replaced Steve Hodge to become a regular at the club; he proved his worth as he scored three goals in the 1991 FA Cup campaign. They managed to make it to the final only to lose out to Tottenham Hotspurs. Despite the disappointing result he maintained
his place and next year led his side to Wembley for the League Cup final, this time losing out to his future club in a 1-0 loss. It was around this time that Keane started attracting interest from Premier League clubs. Blackburn Rovers boss Kenny Dalglish
was the first to notice him and made an attempt to encourage the Irishman to sign with the club at the end of the season.
At this point Forest were struggling with relegation and it seemed likely that Keane would leave. There were still negotiations with Clough, who tried his best to maintain the player but gave up because of Keane’s high wage demand, describing him as a “greedy
child.” He said, “Keane is the hottest prospect in football right now, but he is not going to bankrupt this club.” A fee of £4 million was agreed with Blackburn but in a turn of events Keane ended up joining Manchester United, after manager Alex Ferguson called
him and invited him to Manchester United. He signed with the club for a record fee of £3.75 million.
The few appearances that Keane made, he made the most of, scoring twice in his home debut against Sheffield United and three months later won the game against Manchester City 3-2 in the Manchester derby by scoring the match winner. With these performances
he soon established himself in the first team and won his first trophy that season, helping Manchester United retain their Premier League title. He was also essential in Manchester United beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final to earn the club their first ever
double.
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