tendance
So Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane are both Irish soccer
sensations, two of and the best players to ever wear the green
jersey.
Mick saw greatness playing for Ireland then became
a respected manager.
While Keane stacked up accomplishments with Manchester
United, proving himself to be one of the greatest ever to play
the game.
You might think their forces combined would lead to nothing
but success for Ireland.
But it didn’t because these two are like oil and water
two key ingredients for savory beef.
McCarthy and Keane were teammates for Ireland in
the early 90’s McCarthy was the captain, lovingly nicknamed
Captain Fantastic Keane was young, fun, and full of potential
and that’s where the trouble began.
In ’92 after a small round-robin style US tournament, Keane
and some other players were late for the bus to the airport
because they were getting a drink.
I should mention it was morning, just for color When Roy
did show up, manager Jack Charlton yelled at him Roy
yelled back and McCarthy felt he had to step in He’s Captain
Fantastic after all and you don’t get a nickname that sounds
like a superhero by pretending you saw something neat out
the bus window to avoid conflict McCarthy told Keane he
was out of order.
the Premier League (mick mccarthy and roy keane)
Keane told McCarthy to, “Go and (beep) himself.”
And things escalated from there a few years down
the line, in 1996, McCarthy was made manager of Ireland.
Meanwhile, Keano had come into his own, regarded as one
of the best midfielders in the game, he was captaining
Manchester United, a successor to United great Bryan Robson.
By mid-1996, he had won the Premier League twice.
When the ’98 World Cup qualifiers came around, Keane
and McCarthy were supposed to be together again, this
time as manager and player.
But Keane kept blowing off Irish games He skipped
McCarthy’s testimonial without telling anybody.
The day before a home game against Portugal, McCarthy
didn’t know when or if Keane was going to show up.
He didn’t show up, instead, he stayed in Manchester
and watched a cricket match.
Hey, at least he had a good time trying to entice some
loyalty, McCarthy named Roy captain for a three-game
the tournament in the US.
But McCarthy was just setting up himself to get burned
with that move.
If someone says they don’t wanna go to the dance
with you, you don’t show up to their house in a limo.
Roy didn’t go on the US tour, it was a small tournament
and he was worn out from the club season united had
just won the double after all.
The Irish fans were starting to turn on Keane did the United
star think he was too good to waste his precious talents
playing for his country?
the 98 World Cup (mick mccarthy and roy keane)
McCarthy however, was not deterred by rejection and selected
Keane for a ’98 World Cup qualifier against Iceland.
And hey, Keane showed up.
The spurned fans let their feelings be known, booing Keane
at the start of the game.
But Keane is really good and the same fans that booed
him were chanting his name by the end of the game.
The game was a 0-0 draw, but Keane was named Man of
the Match.
Ireland didn’t qualify for the ’98 World Cup, but when
the 2002 World Cup qualifiers rolled around, everyone
had high hopes Keane and McCarthy would work
together in harmony, mostly because they had to.
Ireland’s group was extremely competitive, Mick later
clarified expectations in an interview.
Nobody gave us a chance to even get anywhere near
Holland and Portugal.
Before the tournament, Keane asked McCarthy for a
meeting, not to discuss their past disagreements but
rather say that if he was gonna play for Ireland,
conditions from diet to travel to gear,
needed to be up to his standards Which sounds
annoying, but in context it’s not that bad See, Ireland,
long before McCarthy, had a history of being lax in
the preparations front.
Like that time players did a fast food eating challenge
with mangers cheering them on the day before a Euro
Cup qualifier they won the eating challenge but lost
the game.
Ireland’s first game was in the Netherlands Keane arrived
after the rest of the team but he communicated with
McCarthy and everything was cool.
Which was fortunate because McCarthy had other problems
to deal with.
Some players went out drinking early in the week, Mark
Kennedy and Phil Babb had a little too much fun and ended
up getting arrested, whoops McCarthy kicked them off
the team.
took an early 2-0 lead
And Keane told the press that was too harsh, McCarthy
was pissed at being undermined in the press, but don’t
worry there’s still time for Keane to get angry, too.
The day before the game, the team was served cheese
sandwiches and Keane couldn’t believe it this is not how
you prepare for a World Cup qualifier even second graders
eat pasta before their games and most of them are just
gonna sit on the ground, picking at the grass the whole time.
Despite the off-field troubles, the actual game went fairly well.
Underdog Ireland took an early 2-0 lead and, yeah the Dutch
managed to tie it before the end, but a tie is still good news.
Keane disagreed Next Ireland tied Portugal 1-1, which
wasn’t the “W” Keane wanted but wasn’t bad either then
Keane had a great match against Cyprus, scoring twice
in Ireland’s 4-0 win, causing McCarthy to gush about
his captain but I guess Keane doesn’t know how to handle
a complement because the next day he gave an interview
where he complained about travel arrangements and
practice fields and even hinted he might quit.
The conditions might have been bad but they weren’t
slowing Ireland down at all.
They tied Portugal again, then upset the Netherlands
the team nobody that nobody thought could get close
to Portugal and the Netherlands, managed to deny
the Dutch a place in the World Cup maybe cheese
sandwiches are better
than carb-loading after all?
No, Keane was still angry about the conditions, in fact,
despite the huge win, he couldn’t even look at McCarthy
during the obligatory handshake, Ireland had qualified
for a playoff with Iran keane had picked up some injuries
that made him touch and go.
He played in the first game, and Ireland earned a 2-0 win.
But for the return game, Keane was out according to
Keane, McCarthy was fine with his decision because
Ireland didn’t need him.
They’d handle Iran and move on to the finals, no prob.
According to McCarthy, he was blindsided with the news,
he never agreed to lose Keane and there were no guarantees
they’d move on.
Buy hey, at least Keane’s absence was good news for
somebody.
Despite the frustration, when the final whistle sounded,
Mick McCarthy’s only emotion was pure joy Ireland was
on to the World Cup for the first time in eight years.
Three days before Ireland headed to the World Cup, Niall
Quinn hosed a charity game between Ireland and Sunderland
and Keane didn’t go He was getting treatment in
Manchester for an injury and McCarthy knew and Quinn
knew but he has a history of missing Irish games
for no reason so the press ran with the story.
So maybe it was all worth it?
The 2002 World Cup was held in Japan and South Korea,
but Ireland’s first stop was the tropical island of Saipan.
McCarthy wanted to give the team a little four day break
out of the spotlight before the intensity really set in.
Of course, they’d do some training there, too,
the old “play hard work hard” adage in full effect.
Right from the start, Keane wasn’t happy with the Saipan trip.
First, the players flew economy class for most of the
17-hour journey.
They had to carry their own bags, and it wasn’t a direct flight.
Though the layover did give Keane a chance to confront
the journalists who wrote that “Keane Snubs Charity” headline.
The players arrived in Saipan just fine but the gear didn’t.
Once they had gear, and went to the practice field, it was
rock hard.
The next day, efforts had been made to fix the field so it
was waterlogged.
At the end of the waterlogged practice, Ireland scrimmage
but without goalies.
Because the goalies were tired Which was blasphemous
to Keane, everyone’s tired, this is the World Cup, scrimmages
need goalies.
Keane talked to/shouted at the goalie coach, Packie Bonner
which turned into a scream off between Keane and goalie
Alan Kelly.
And after practice a fed up Keane told McCarthy he was out.
It’s over, he’d rather miss the World Cup, than deal with these conditions.
You might be thinking, “Really?
And Keane was also thinking that He spent the night talking
to United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson, his wife, his agent
and by morning he’d changed his mind.
McCarthy didn’t throw Keane a welcome back parade, but
he did handle the press for him.
Nope, the next morning the Irish Times published an interview
with Keane detailing just why he wanted to leave, saying he’s
not a prima donna, twice, clarifying just how crappy that training
field really was and predicting doom at the hands
of McCarthy in 2002 World Cup.
What a fun breakfast read for McCarthy the day after he told
the press team morale was high.
That night McCarthy called a team showdown, I mean,
team meeting.
Keane resented McCarthy confronting him in front of the whole
team, he asked McCarthy why he was doing this publicly.
Which was kind of a perfect opening for McCarthy to, bam,
whip out the Irish Times article and be like, “You wanna talk about
making things public?”
So at this point the tone of the meeting was decided, hostile.
How that hostility played out depends on who you ask.
If you ask McCarthy, Roy started yelling about how he hates
McCarthy and how he skips games to avoid him.
So McCarthy asks why he missed the return game against
Iran.
If you as Keane what happened, McCarthy accused him of
being unpatriotic and faking an injury to get out of the Iran game.
Whoever you believe, there’s no debate about what happened next.
Roy Keane went off.
McCarthy kicked him off the team
The star player called his manager names, or one name repeatedly,
called him a bad player, bad manager, and a bad person and then went
ahead and told him what he could do with the World Cup.
So McCarthy kicked him off the team.
Come on, Keane, you can’t actually curse out your boss, you
can fantasize about it over and over again as you’re trying to
fall asleep, but you can’t really do it.
The next day, the team was off to Japan, where the training
fields were great by the way, like carpet, players said.
And Roy was headed home to Manchester United got him a
private jet home, see he’s used to bettering conditions.
McCarthy and Keane were in separate countries, but customs
agents are damned, this beef crossed international borders
with ease.
The day after arriving home, Keane declared he had nothing to apologize for.
Saying, in fact, McCarthy should be the one to apologize.
McCarthy countered by reminding everyone that Keane
screamed obscenities at him.
The feud dominated Ireland, fans protested, the Prime Minister
asked McCarthy to take Keano beck, and businessmen said
they’d use their private jets to fly him to Japan if he was reinstated.
But Keane made it pretty clear the chances of reconciliation were slim.
In an interview with Ireland’s public broadcasting channel,
he insisted he had done nothing wrong.
If I felt for one second, for one second, I was a little bit out of
order, I’d apologize and I’d go back and I’d love to play in
the World Cup But I’m 100% right.
failed to qualify for the European Championship
the following day McCarthy offered an olive branch, saying
Keane could come back if he does the one thing he vowed
on national television he would never do.
Huh, I didn’t know olive branches had thorns finally Keane
released a statement saying it wasn’t gonna happen
the damage has been done.
Ireland went on to have a pretty good World Cup, making it
to the round of 16 before losing to Spain on penalty kicks.
Lucky for McCarthy can you imagine how everyone would
have turned
on him, if they did badly?
Wait, you don’t have to imagine Because a few months later,
Ireland, playing without Roy of course, failed to qualify for the European Championship.
Fans booed McCarthy mercilessly and sometimes went a
little further.
We know McCarthy doesn’t like to be cursed at, let alone
with a megaphone.
With the cards on the table, McCarthy resigned days after
that, an independent report concluded that Keane had a
point about how bad the conditions were during the World Cup.
In an interview, McCarthy said he’d always be known as
the guy who sent Roy Keane home but he still doesn’t
regret it.
Flash forward to 2006, McCarthy was managing
Wolves, Roy was managing Sunderland, and the two
teams were about to face off.
Though there’d be no reheated beef before the match,
McCarthy and Keane spoke and managed to put the Saipan
incident behind them Keane even apologized.
The game saw no animosity between the two men, ended
in a tie, and Keane and McCarthy shook hands, while looking
at each other. (mick mccarthy and roy keane)
So beef over? (mick mccarthy and roy keane)
Nope, in 2014 Keano, now the assistant manager of Ireland,
said his 2006 apology was fake I bet Irish fans wish he knew
how to fake apologize back in 2002.
Then in summer 2018, Keane told the press if McCarthy had
apologized to him back in 2002, he could have rejoined Ireland
for the World Cup.
Mick responded through his agent and did not issue an apology,
if you can believe it.
McCarthy really was ready to move on, and it seems Ireland
was, too a few months later, McCarthy was made Irish manager.
Upon his appointment, he was, of course, asked about Keane,
but he said he respects him and would take no more
questions about it.
Saying you respect the other guy is like pouring ketchup
on a stake, it ruins the beef.
Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane are both Irish soccer legends
with long lists of accomplishments.
But they don’t share any of those accomplishments.
The only thing these two shared is a meal made up entirely of bee
(mick mccarthy and roy keane)
