Was Roy Keane overrated?

jaiguruKun said:
While we're on the subject, Bryan Robson WAS hugely overrated. Had a couple of good seasons in the mid 80s them did fuck all for the rest of his career apart from being injured and getting pissed every night. Did bugger all for England, played like he was hungover but was nicknamed Captain Marvel by the press for reasons I can never quite fathom.
Click to expand...
I agree. I don't think he was bad, but overrated, definitely. It comes with the territory though, with the rags anyway.
 
Let’s be honest, he was a very good player and a great captain for his time.

Football is on another level compared to the end of the 00s, never mind the 90s when very few foreign stars played in England and previous decades to that when almost no foreign stars played in England.

As time passes, the top modern sides would wipe the floor with teams from three decades ago. But that doesn’t mean those teams weren’t great at their time. Top sides from the 60s and 70s would be League 1 level now. There are more internationals from non-home nations in League 1 than there were in the First Division back in the 60s+70s (13 League 1 players played at the last World Cup).

Look back at football from the 90s, many players ran very un-athletically and many didn’t look like athletes, they had far more time and space on the ball and teams didn’t defend anywhere near the same as they do today. But for their time United had a top side and their players were top players in this country for that era.

So I wouldn’t say Keane is overrated, no. He was a very good forward passer of the ball, first time pinpoint passes at pace driven along the ground to his attackers, was arguably his best asset.
 
Last edited:
Gorton_Tubster said:
As a footballer he was poor tbh. As a leader of men, pulling players up, getting the team to work, he was very good.

You didn't necessarily have to be a good footballer in those days. You could win the league with about 25% of the talent we have in our team nowadays, and the rest was made up by threatening behaviour.... towards the opposition, the refs, the PL. Combatative I think they called it. Exciting. Best in the world.

I thought it was thuggery. I really liked arsenal, lots of skill and talent but they were basically kicked around the pitch when they played utd. Keane made sure that happened.
Click to expand...
Arsenal had some cloggers too. Keown, Bould and Adams were a nasty trio. Viera was pretty combative too.
 
Gorton_Tubster said:
As a footballer he was poor tbh. As a leader of men, pulling players up, getting the team to work, he was very good.

You didn't necessarily have to be a good footballer in those days. You could win the league with about 25% of the talent we have in our team nowadays, and the rest was made up by threatening behaviour.... towards the opposition, the refs, the PL. Combatative I think they called it. Exciting. Best in the world.

I thought it was thuggery. I really liked arsenal, lots of skill and talent but they were basically kicked around the pitch when they played utd. Keane made sure that happened.
Click to expand...

Arsenal were a team of thugs aswell, they had the worst disciplinary record in the League by a mile. We just all liked watching Henry, Bergkamp and Pires and they were the only team stopping the rags so we turned a blind eye to it.
 
Kippax Street 1880 said:
He was a great player as was Scholes. Beckham and Giggs were the overrated 2.
Click to expand...

If anything I think Beckham is underrated now because his fame and reputation for stuff off the pitch eclipsed his fame from being a great footballer.

He and KDB are the best crossers of a ball I’ve seen, and 65 goals from free kicks is absurd really. We’ve had some world class free kick takers in the last 20 years and I’m not sure they scored 65 combined.

Giggs is over rated because of his longevity and trophy cabinet, younger people seem to see his best clips and think he was doing that regularly for 20 years and he really wasn’t.

In reality he averaged 5 goals and 7 assists in the league for United, and there’s probably 20+ players doing that most seasons.

I’m 32 so my memory of the late 90s early 00s is not the best, but I don’t ever remember him being considered Uniteds stand out player. I would say Bruno Fernandes has been better for them and he won’t be regarded as an all time great when he goes.
 
Last edited:
domalino said:
If anything I think Beckham is underrated now because his fame and reputation for stuff off the pitch eclipsed his fame from being a great footballer.

He and KDB are the best crossers of a ball I’ve seen, and 65 goals from free kicks is absurd really. We’ve had some world class free kick takers in the last 20 years and I’m not sure they scored 65 combined.
Click to expand...

He was definitely a superb striker of the ball but that's probably the only thing he was elite at. Worked like a trojan on the pitch though to be fair to him and he made the absolute most of his ability.

Always thought the Brazilian at Lyon Juninho was a better free kick taker aswell but he's probably the best ever at them so not too much of a knock on golden bollocks.
 
Gorton_Tubster said:
As a footballer he was poor tbh. As a leader of men, pulling players up, getting the team to work, he was very good.

You didn't necessarily have to be a good footballer in those days. You could win the league with about 25% of the talent we have in our team nowadays, and the rest was made up by threatening behaviour.... towards the opposition, the refs, the PL. Combatative I think they called it. Exciting. Best in the world.

I thought it was thuggery. I really liked arsenal, lots of skill and talent but they were basically kicked around the pitch when they played utd. Keane made sure that happened.
Click to expand...
Our (Arsenal) team that won the league a few times was absolutely brutal in the middle. We had Vieira and Keown as just 2 players who would kick anything in a opposition shirt. Vieira was a superb player whereas Keown basically was just able to kick people. However we did get red cards in abundance for this and rightly so.

What did piss me off was just how much leniency United received when players like Keane and Ratboy could just kick the opposition. Scholes as well was a nasty bastard. We would get the full violent treatment at Old Toilet and the ref would turn a blind eye to it whereas our players would get sent off. I genuinely think we were robbed of at least one other title due to how United bullied and influenced refs, all instigated by the pisshead who was their manager.
 
He was basically Ferguson personified on the field of play, a snarling bullying thug who intimidated the opposition, the officials and, just as importantly, his own team mates.

He had tremendous drive and desire and a will to win but he had very little actual skill or technical ability, his drive and desire was mainly channelled through thuggery and obviously being a united player he was allowed to get away with it.
 
Indaparkside said:
Dirty **** trying to end someone’s career, should have been banned for life for that pre meditated cowardly attack on Alfie
Click to expand...
Yes. I have never understood how someone can write a book and describe in detail how they went into a game with the plan to violently attack someone, and then not face police action. If you wrote a book saying you were going to attack someone in your workplace and days later you did, you would be in jail. Why is it different for footballers.

On the subject of Keane's attack on Haaland, Erling (born in Leeds, could have played for England) once said he would have probably played for England if his dad had played in England longer. His dad didn't do that because Keane essentially ended his career (Alf never played 90 minutes again after that tackle).
 
OnlyOneUweRosler said:
Yes. I have never understood how someone can write a book and describe in detail how they went into a game with the plan to violently attack someone, and then not face police action. If you wrote a book saying you were going to attack someone in your workplace and days later you did, you would be in jail. Why is it different for footballers.

On the subject of Keane's attack on Haaland, Erling (born in Leeds, could have played for England) once said he would have probably played for England if his dad had played in England longer. His dad didn't do that because Keane essentially ended his career (Alf never played 90 minutes again after that tackle).
Click to expand...
He’s a dog wanking **** pal
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top