Captain with his master’s voice
Posted in News on Tuesday August 2nd, 2005 11:12am
From The Guardian
While it took Eric Cantona’s talismanic panache to rid Old Trafford of its phobias about the league title, it was Keane who then went on to be Ferguson’s delegate on the pitch. In their shared determination, attraction towards controversy and sporadic unreasonableness, they sometimes look like facets of the same person. If the manager were to cut his captain from the line-up it would feel like an act of self-amputation. So flawless was the reflection of his own temperament that Ferguson went to extraordinary lengths to buy Keane. Blackburn were flush with Jack Walker’s cash while United were wedded to parsimony, yet he still persuaded his board to release a then British record £3.75m fee so that he could divert the midfielder from Ewood Park.
The alliance between Ferguson and Keane has generally been harmonious. In the captain’s memoirs the invective is hoarded for Mick McCarthy and Alf-Inge Haaland. There is barely the hint of a grievance with the manager. Keane, having got himself into a dispute with a barman during a Christmas night out, depicts himself as the culprit when Ferguson was at his most antagonistic.
View other posts by Administrator
