Keane: The Autobiography

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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.

It’s the book of someone who has struggled in their second career to match the highs of their first. He would tear you to shreds on the pitch if you gave away the ball, ‘Get your effing touch right, effing this, effing that,’ but as soon as you got into the dressing room, it was over. Proving popular with the fans, ITV kept Roy on as the chief football analyst and he commentated on nearly every match that was streamed live.

The second book also shows that Keane now questions some of the belief’s he had throughout his earlier career and that jump out in the first book. Similarly, as someone who attended a few Sunderland games during its “Irish” era, I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at his incredibly succesful first year in management. The book and its subject come across exactly how Roddy Doyle describes his feelings towards Keane's personality: "not fascinating, but interesting". Dunphy followed, claiming, it is understood, that Keane's comments in the book were unfaithfully reported, before closing statements and deliberation.

A genuine pleasure; it is a masterpiece of the genre and one that paints, in an entirely unintentional way, an extremely flattering portrait of the man . Overall, he won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and one Champions League he forged a reputation as one of the league’s toughest midfielders.I had assumed the Wenger revolution of special diets and no alcohol had come into play much earlier than it clearly did. With no prospects for club play (forget junior nationals or professional football), Roy Keane’s career appeared to everyone to be finished. I’m not saying they were perfect, and I’m not saying Ferguson’s achievements weren’t great either, but if you take the word of Keane and Dunphy in the first, it’s all black and white – no objective middle ground. I have always judged people how I find them and I can honestly say I have never found a fault in him . However, you do have to enjoy the game of soccer considering the book is about a former soccer player and the events of his life as a soccer player.

He played at international level for much of his career, representing the Republic of Ireland over a period of fourteen years, most of which he spent as captain. 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.

Keane's honesty gets to the point of almost being uncomfortable at times, but that's what makes it so good. 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. I was never on the end of one of his tackles but I always enjoyed watching him and I like how he speaks his mind. I don’t know if astute publishers or an act of the gods gave us these two tragic volumes within hours of each other, but it is hard, in the spirit of a million student essays, not to compare and contrast.