Eoin O'Callaghan is the Toronto-based, Irish sports journalist and broadcaster behind the latest book on Roy Keane - and possibly some of the most interesting writing on the Cork man who remains so firmly in the public eye.
A broadcaster with the likes of Fox Soccer in North America and sports website The42 here in Ireland, Eoin writes for CorkBeo about why he was drawn to the origin story of Roy Keane - and what he learned from looking at the life of Keano before he found huge success.
Eoin explains:
It was the summer of 2018 when I was reminded of the 25th anniversary of Roy Keane’s record-breaking move to Manchester United.
I hadn’t paid it much notice. At the time, Keane was very public-facing and still part of the Republic of Ireland managerial setup, while his ITV punditry always stirred controversy and guaranteed headlines.
I got the distinct impression people were tired of hearing about him. So, when I was tasked with writing a feature for The42 about his transfer to Old Trafford, I wasn’t exactly enthused.
Over the years, I’d written about Keane quite a bit. In 2014, I went to Manchester specifically to watch him - in the shadow of the ground he graced so magnificently for over a dozen years - rip his former employers and ex-manager Sir Alex Ferguson to pieces while promoting his second autobiography.
There, at the Lancashire County Cricket Club, I saw a crowd of over 600 - mainly middle-aged men - hang on his every word. You could hear a pin drop. When it came to audience questions, one guy relentlessly held his arm aloft until the very end. Finally, Keane personally called upon him. Turned out the guy had driven five hours from Glasgow to be there.
Keane was box-office entertainment that night, and extremely funny. But walking back to my hotel afterwards, I remember feeling slightly disappointed.
I’d hoped to see a different side of Keane, maybe somebody more reflective. Instead, he still held on to the bitter betrayals and condemned those who wronged him.
My analysis of Keane usually straddled the same pithy, lazy cliches: complex, contrarian, dark. But when I finally sat down to write that feature on the anniversary of his signing for United , I was drawn to a raw, electric, infectious character - all swagger and attitude.
The piece focused on the build-up to the record-breaking move and just how Keane had grown to become a high-profile signing, the top clubs all lining up to spend lavish amounts on him. And that’s where Keane: Origins started.
I wanted to find out more about this kid from Mayfield who’d essentially missed his chance. I wanted to find out why he’d been ignored and shunned. And I wanted to trace the spectacular trajectory of what followed.
He never trialled in England, never became an apprentice, never cleaned boots or swept dressing rooms. Instead, as his peers were granted opportunities, he seemed so close to the edge.
As two Rockmount team-mates, the late Paul McCarthy and Alan O’Sullivan, went to Brighton and Luton respectively and were consistent starters for the Irish underage side, Keane was still at home.
When he finally moved on, it was to Cobh Ramblers and the unrelenting chaos of the League of Ireland First Division, certainly no place for an 18-year-old.
But by that stage he also had a FAS course in Dublin providing him with astute technical coaching on a full-time basis. And in spite of the lack of interest from scouts & his litany of underage humiliations with Ireland, he was constantly preparing himself. Just in case.
And when his life changed one crisp Sunday afternoon in February at Dublin’s Fairview Park, he was ready for Nottingham Forest. In many ways, the hard work had been done.
And maybe that’s why he made everything look so easy upon arrival at the City Ground. Much is made of his fairytale debut at Anfield, handed a shock start by Brian Clough.
But any kid can make a debut. What Keane did was stay in the side for the rest of the season (ousting England international Steve Hodge in the process and ensuring his eventual departure from the club), finish third in the PFA Young Player of the Year vote and play in an FA Cup final at Wembley, a game where Tottenham boss Terry Venables was so concerned with the threat of a half-fit, 19-year-old Keane that he asked Paul Stewart to man-mark him.
The book features over 30 interviews with former team-mates, opponents and coaches and the contributions offer an incredible insight into the formative Roy Keane. A portrait of the artist as a young man, essentially: the clothes, the cars, the clubs, the music, the mistakes.
It took a lot of exhaustive and painstaking research but uncovers plenty of new information, like the ignominy of an Ireland youths trip to Malta where he’s bizarrely cut from Maurice Setters’ 17-man squad and told to fetch the balls from behind the goals during the pre-match warmup.
The following evening, with the senior team also in town, he takes his frustrations out on Packie Bonner with an astonishing verbal outburst.
And that’s the biggest takeaway. Despite what the amateur psychologists would tell you, Keane isn’t very complex at all. In actual fact, he’s been incredibly consistent since his teens in terms of his general demeanour.
At various times cutting, loyal, motivated, difficult, moralistic, relentless. When he tells Liverpool’s legendary winger John Barnes to fuck off early on in his debut, it’s akin to the famous challenge on Marc Overmars at Landsdowne Road.
Thou shalt never bow down.
When he grabs a Dublin opponent by the throat during an intense ‘friendly’ during the FAS course after a bad challenge on his friend Jamie Cullimore, it’s the same guy that protects Gary Neville and tells Patrick Vieira exactly what he thinks of him that night at Highbury.
It’s just that the myth is a lot more appealing to get behind.
In Keane: Origins, I desperately attempted to debunk as many of them as possible. One of the things I’m most proud of is that the term ‘warrior’ - so frequently used to describe him - appears just once in 93,000 words. He’s much more than that.
There’s also plenty of vulnerability to the young Keane, sending pen-pal letters home to Tony Gorman, a close pal during his FAS stint, updating him on his progress at Forest and Clough having him by his side during a visit to a special needs centre for children.
Above all else, it’s the story of a kid who lands his boyhood dream just when it seemed to be slipping away.
Keane: Origins is published by Mercier Press and has been an immediate bestseller. A second print run hits bookstores this week.
