Keane: The Autobiography

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Roy Keane is honest about the nature of most soccer players. He’s frank about the nature of the news media, team managers and fans. He’s explicit about what it takes to win. And, most stirringly, Roy Keane is honest about the price one pays for not compromising on the things one believes in. People miss the fact that Keane is funny. Caustic, yes, clenched, he'd admit. Angry (though no longer prone to rage, his book claims) more than most. But funny. The light touch in The Second Half is not exclusively Doyle's. Yet the heavy stuff compels ... The account of Keane's Sunderland reign is riveting. The everyday trials of a first-time manager are uncovered as in no other book ... The Second Half is brutally honest -- Jonathan Northcroft * THE SUNDAY TIMES * Box to box, probably the best midfield player in terms of being an engine for the team that I’ve played with. He never really had bad games, (and) was a good leader in midfield.” Two books in one - the tales of a truly great Premier League footballer, flawed by raging moments of visceral destructiveness... then the tortuous account of an aspiring, complex 21st-century manager... addictive road-crash reading... But the book's true revelatory value is seen during Keane's time as manager of Sunderland, which he relates with a remarkable candour and honesty. An incomparable achievement - written with Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle - illustrating the contemporary demands on a player and boss whose life has always been conducted with its own stark, peculiar, and sometimes violent, logic -- Neil Masuda * SUNDAY MIRROR * 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.

Keane's eminent co-writer, Booker Prize-winning Irish author Roddy Doyle, does a brilliant job. His gift for comedy and swearing, together with his wonderfully transparent style, not only captures his country man's voice but also adds some much-needed light and shade to the unforgiving business of being Roy Keane. It's not a sentence I expected to write but the account of Keane's triumphant first season at Sunderland is particularly uplifting -- Neil O'Sullivan * FINANCIAL TIMES * Keane's book - ghosted by Roddy Doyle - is brutal, amusing and self-deprecating, often at the same time -- Des Kelly * EVENING STANDARD * 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.No. 1 bestselling memoir of Roy Keane, former captain of Manchester United and Ireland - co-written with Man Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle. 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.

For a complete player, without a doubt Keano. Apart from the bad side he had, he was the complete midfield player for me.

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Opinions about Brian Clough were mixed in the dressing room. Some players were afraid of him. Others disliked him. Few grumbled that we didn’t see enough of the manager. My own view of Clough was coloured by the fact which remained foremost in my mind: he’d given me my chance, and I owed everything I now had to him. How many managers would risk their reputation by throwing a nineteen-year-old into the first team, at Anfield? A kid with no professional experience? More than that, his generous response to my requests for trips home to Cork had helped me through the difficult early days at Forest. Sure, he had his own way of doing things, but it worked for Forest. And for me.” The choice of Doyle marks an acceleration in the ghostwriting arms race (next week: Sam Allardyce and George R R Martin) and ensures Keane's humanity – rather than the belligerence captured by Eamon Dunphy in Keane's 2002 book – is to the fore. JK Rowling has described Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors as her favourite book for his skill in inhabiting the life of abused wife Paula Spencer, a more than adequate preparation for the relatively straightforward contradictions of Ireland's most complex – and we use the term loosely – sports star.

The other main contradiction that an Arsenal fan such as myself may be tempted to call a double-standard is Keane’s supposed unflinching attitude toward the truth. He exemplified a very important aspect of Man United’s greatness, which was a hatred of complacency, a refusal to be satisfied that more often than not spoiled any sense of accomplishment. This ultimately led to his downfall, tragic hero that he is (although the Autobiography was written prior to the event) when he unduly criticized his teammates’ performance on Man U’s own TV program. The contradiction lies not in his ability to be mercilessly critical of himself and his own team, but in the absolute denial of the existence of quality elsewhere. He has some words for Real Madrid and Juventus, and he admits begrudgingly throughout when another team played better than his; but for the most part the successes of anyone else mean nothing to him. As a fan of a major rival of his, it’s easy to see why I would notice such a contradiction; but Keane is not concerned with being a well-rounded individual. He is not concerned with following the Socratic method of argument. The inability to give the slightest shit about competitors doing well, to nonsensically (in logical terms) attribute zero value to the success of rivals, is a major advantage for a competitive athlete. At the office it makes you a cunt, but in the vicious world of professional football it is a valuable—if unconscious—attribute. I thoroughly enjoyed this enthralling, frank and hilarious book. Readers not familiar with British colloquialisms and English football culture may find this story difficult to follow. But readers interested in what constitutes the heart of a champion will find Keane The Autobiography both rewarding and indispensable. The judgment took just over an hour for the independent disciplinary committee - chaired by Barry Bright, chair man of the FA's disciplinary committee - to reach.Engrossing... a book that is both an exercise in truth-telling and a piece of literary football writing -- Leo Robson * NEW STATESMAN * Overall, the Keane we encounter in book 2 is more reflective and self-critical. It’s the book of someone who has struggled in their second career to match the highs of their first. It’s much less about titles and victories and more about aging, starting again and trying to build a new career. Keane’s own rise was meteoric once it got going, progressing from playing in the 2nd Division in Ireland with Cobh Ramblers to starting in an FA Cup Final for Nott’s Forrest within 12 months. It likely took a genius like Forrest manager Brian Clough to see Keane’s true potential and throw him straight into the Forrest line up as a starter at 19.

In a highly successful 18-year career, he played for Cobh Ramblers in the League of Ireland, Nottingham Forest and, most notably, Manchester United (both in England), before ending his career with a brief spell at Celtic in Scotland. 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 * 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. Roy Keane won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League trophy with Manchester United – not to mention the respect of virtually everyone he faced. To use a sporting cliche, this blisteringly honest book - written in collaboration with Roddy Doyle - is a tale of two halves. An account of the driven Premier League star's career, then an insight into life as a manager. Roy Keane's self-deprecating wit, combined with a take-no-prisoners approach, make for an entertaining read * i newspaper 'The 10 Best Sporting memoirs' *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 * 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 * Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle nails Keane's attitude and cadences... Compelling, eye-opening, and - whisper it - great fun -- Ben East * METRO * 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.