Top 9 extracts from Roy Keane's autobiography: The Second Half

Roy Keane has always been a fiery character. Whether it was in his days as Manchester United’s inspirational captian or in his current role as the heavily bearded assistant manager of Aston Villa.An outspoken character who could go toe to toe with the best both off and on the pitch, he is back with his second autobiography: The Second Half. If this one is anywhere near as controversial as his first - Keane: The Autobiography, we can expect some startling revelations.The book launches in two days and here are some of the best bits leaked as of now:Buy the book here

#1 On the Class of \'92

Keane hasn’t spared even the fans’ beloved Class of 92. The sextet, now a symbol of Manchester United’s youth policy, consisting of Phil and Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs have been in the news about after a documentary of the same name released earlier this year. Subsequently they took temporary charge of the club’s management after David Moyes’ exit and have recently bought Salford City.

“The Class of '92 – all good players, but their role at the club has become exaggerated," Keane writes.

"The 'Class of '92' seems to have grown its own legs; it has become a brand. It's as if they were a team away from the team, and they're not shy of plugging into it.

"But we all had the same aims – we all had the hunger. Scholesy was a top, top player. But I still don't fall for that boy-next-door image, or that he's dead humble. He has more of an edge to him. Everyone thinks he lives in a council flat.”

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#2 On the fight with Peter Schmeichel

In another explosive revelation, Keane wrote that he ended up giving Peter Schmeichel a black-eye in a hotel room during a tour to Hong Kong.

The altercation was so loud it woke even Sir Bobby Charlton up.

Keane writes: “I had a bust-up with Peter when we were on a pre-season tour of Asia, in 1998, just after I came back from my cruciate injury. I think we were in Hong Kong. There was drink involved.”

“There’d been a little bit of tension between us over the years, for football reasons. Peter would come out shouting at players, and I felt sometimes he was playing up to the crowd: ‘Look at me!’

“He said: ‘I’ve had enough of you, It’s time we sorted this out.’ So I said ‘Okay’ and we had a fight. It felt like 10 minutes.”

“I woke up the next morning. I kind of vaguely remembered the fight. My hand was really sore and one of my fingers was bent backwards. The manager had a go at us as we were getting on the bus, and people were going on about a fight in the hotel the night before.

In the meantime, Nicky Butt had been filling me in on what had happened the night before. Butty had refereed the fight. It started coming back to me – the fight between me and Peter. Anyway, Peter had grabbed me, I’d head-butted him – we’d been fighting for ages.

“At the press conference, Peter took his sunglasses off. He had a black eye. The questions came at him ‘Peter, what happened to your eye?’ “He said ‘I just got an elbow last night, in training’. And that was the end of it.”

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#3 On Rio Ferdinand missing the drug test

Keane talks about Rio Ferdinand missing a routine drug test in September 2003.

"'He (Rio) suffered for it and so did the team. If it had been me, and the doctor had said I had to do a drugs test, I'd have gone and done it. It wasn't something I'd have forgotten.

'It wouldn't have been like collecting a letter at the office, or remembering your boots. When a doctor says you've got to do a drugs test, it's not an everyday thing. But then, some people are genuinely forgetful.

'I don't think I was annoyed at the time, and I don't think the other players were either. But, ultimately, the team suffered. I didn't look at Rio and think that he'd been up to no good, or that there was a hidden reason for what had occurred.

'I think he genuinely forgot. We paid the price. He was a very good player and we missed him, especially in the second half of the season when the crunch games were coming up.”

Ferdinand was banned for eight months and fined £50,000 for missing the test.

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#4 On Patrick Vieira

Roy Keane has talked about the infamous Patrick Vieira tunnel incident at Highbury in February 2005.

Keane said: "If it had come to a fight, Patrick could probably have killed me."

He said he was calm before the clash but the sight of the Frenchman bullying Gary Neville before the game blew his fuse.

“As I walked to the front I heard something going on at the top of the tunnel," he writes. "All I could see was a few fingers, pointing at Gary. I lost it. Five seconds earlier I'd been perfectly calm, in the zone, ready for the match.

“I'd thought they might have booted him out on the pitch. But in the tunnel? I just thought 'The f******'. They were trying to bully him. They were a big team and, in the tunnel, they were even bigger. So I said to myself 'Alright, let's go'.

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#5 On the Rock of Gibraltar controversy

Keane also writes about the infamous Rock of Gibraltar horse incident involving Sir Alex Ferguson and the then Manchester United shareholders – JP McManus and John Magnier.

The controversy erupted over Sir Alex Ferguson’s claim over the stud’s right for the widely succesful racing horse Rock of Gibraltar. Ferguson took legal action in 2003 leading to a settlement in 2004 with the manager getting a £2.5million one-off payment eventually leading to McManus and Magnier selling their shares to the Glazer family allowing them to takeover the club.

“Somebody I met in Ireland had told me to tell him [Ferguson]: ‘You are not going to win this,’ Keane writes. “I mentioned it to him. And I told him that I didn’t think it was good for the club, the manager in a legal dispute with shareholders.

“I felt I was entitled to say that. He was just a mascot for them. Walking around with this Rock Of Gibraltar – ‘Look at me, how big I am,’ – and he didn’t even own the bloody thing.”

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#6 On his exit from Manchester United

Keane provides the details of his falling out with both Ferguson and his assistant Carlos Queiroz which is in line with the manager’s version in his own autobiography released last year. His public criticism of his teammates on club channel MUTV was the catalyst behind his eventual exit. The former captain sought to work out their differences after a while but regrets doing it now.

“Now I kind of wish I hadn’t," Keane writes "Afterwards I was thinking, ‘I’m not sure why I f****** apologised.’ I just wanted to do the right thing.

"I was apologising for what had happened – that it had happened. But I wasn’t apologising for my behaviour or stance. There’s a difference – I had nothing to apologise for.”

It started in a pre-season training camp in the Algarve, where he had an argument with the increasingly influential Queiroz about loyalty.

“He was just on my right shoulder," said Keane. "How I didn’t f****** hit him – I was thinking, ‘The villa in Portugal, not treating me well in training' – and he just used the word 'loyalty' to me.

“I said, ‘Don’t you f****** talk to me about loyalty, Carlos. You left this club after 12 months a few years ago for the Real Madrid job. Don’t you dare question my loyalty. I had opportunities to go to Juventus and Bayern Munich.”

Ferguson intervened. “That’s enough. I’ve had enough of all this,” he said.

“You as well gaffer," Keane said. "We need f***ing more from you. We need a bit more, gaffer. We’re slipping behind other teams.”

When goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar suggested Keane could have used a 'different tone' in his infamous interview his reply was quick.

'Edwin, why don’t you shut the f*** up? You’ve been at this club for two minutes and you’ve done more interviews than I’ve done in my 12 years. It was MUTV – I had to do it.'

"I'd known for a few days they were trying to get rid of me," he said. "I said to Ferguson 'Can I play for somebody else?' And he said “Yeah, you can cos' we're tearing up your contract.”

"I knew there'd be clubs in for me when the news got out. I said 'Yeah, I think we have come to the end.' I just thought 'F****** p****s' - and I stood up and went, 'Yeah, I'm off.'"

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#7 On that Alf-Inge Haaland tackle

In his first autobiography Keane wrote on length about his intention to injure the Manchester City player on that day in 2001. In his second book, he appears to have no regret whatsoever though he only touched upon the incident in a passing mention.

"There are things I regret in my life and he's not one of them," says Keane.

The long standing rivalry between the players began in 1997 when Keane had a cruciate ligament injury while attempting to foul Haaland, who then claimed that he was faking an injury.

Keane got his revenge four years later, thrusting his studs on Haaland’s right knee during a Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

"I'd waited long enough. I f------ hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you c---," Keane has said first autobiography.

"And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries. Even in the dressing room afterwards, I had no remorse. My attitude was, f--- him.

"What goes around, comes around. He got his just rewards. He f----- me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye."

Keane was fined £5,000 and given a three-match ban initially. He was later subject to an FA inquiry after the release of his first autobiography and received another five game ban and a £150,000 fine.

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#8 On Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Old Trafford fpr a transfer fee of £12.26 million in 2003 after a dazzling performance for Sporting Lisbon in a friendly against Manchester United.

Keane has revealed that former United man John O’Shea had a huge part to play in the signing of the two-time Ballon d'Or winner.

“We were playing Sporting Lisbon to celebrate the opening of their stadium,” Keane said. “I saw how good Ronaldo was that day.

“He was up against John O’Shea. Sheasy ended up seeing the doctor at half time because he was actually having dizzy spells.

“The club concluded negotiations after the game and we always joked with Sheasy he had actually sealed the deal by playing like a f------ clown.

“In fairness to him, he was jet-lagged [from America] like the rest of us.”

Keane had identified just how good the Portuguese was in his first few training session.

“I liked Ronaldo straight away,” Keane said. “He had a nice presence about him and a good attitude.

“After watching him train for a few days I thought: “This lad is going to be one of the best players in the world.”

“He was seventeen, but he was immediately one of the hardest working players at United.

“He was good looking and he knew it. Looking at some of the other players in front of the mirror I would think: ‘You f------ nugget’.

“But Ronaldo had an innocence to him and a niceness.”

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#9 On David Moyes\' reign

He also talks about former manager David Moyes saying he didn’t get enough support and had a weak dressing room

"I wonder about the current United dressing room," Keane wrote.

"When a manager like Sir Alex Ferguson is replaced, the new man needs a helping hand along the way. Does that mean every player should like the new manager or his coaching staff, or love his new sessions and everything about him? No.

"I look at the current players, and they should have been doing a lot better. It might be argued that it was up to the manager to motivate them. But not liking a manager, for whatever reason, can never be an excuse for not going out and doing your best.

"Looking at what happened to David Moyes, I have to conclude that he can't have had a strong dressing room: he had a weak dressing room."

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