Roy Keane slammed in Bruno Fernandes feud as ’embarrassing’, ‘bitter’ and ‘desperate for attention’
Roy Keane actively lied about what Bruno Fernandes said, then doubled down and apologised in the latest low for a Manchester United legend.
We also have mails on Michael Carrick, Arsenal, Chelsea and more.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.
Not so Keane
I’m a 43 year old Irish United fan. Naturally, Cantona is my favourite United player ever. He’s followed by Roy Keane.
Keane was a no-nonsense player who, whatever you thought of him, conducted himself with honesty. He was an oasis in the burgeoning celebrity culture around professional footballers.
Now he has a catchphrase.
His instagram post was embarrassing. Clearly, he’s finding it very hard to deal with Bruno’s resurgence after publicly sh*tting on him for so long.
I hope someone explains to him that if he can’t find it in himself to bow his head, put his hand up and admit some arseholery on his part then he does have the option to not appear in front of a camera again. He’s not actually obliged to talk inane sh*te on a broadcast platform. He can actually just stay at home in his mansion. I hope he realises that soon.
The amount of celebrities that have taken a sledgehammer to their reputation when all they had to do is shut the f**k up is maddening.
Thank f**k for Cantona.
Eamonn, Dublin
I want to talk about Roy Keane but most of what I have to say involves a vulgar word related to Tuesdays. To avoid any content publishing issues I’m going to replace that vulgar word with ‘donkey’.
Roy Keane is a donkey. This wasn’t much of an issue 30 years ago when having a massive donkey running your midfield was useful in a ‘maintaining standards and winning mentality’ sort of way. Though even as a player being such a prodigious donkey was eventually more trouble than it was worth.
After ending his playing career Roy has spent the last 20 years proving what a uniquely profound donkey he is. In coaching and management he, quite publicly, raised his level of donkeyness to new heights and to the point where someone actually spent £4.5m making a movie showcasing what a thoroughly horrible donkey he can be.
He didn’t stop there though, he discovered he could actually get paid for being a donkey. All he had to do was watch a football game then be a donkey on camera for a few minutes and the cash rolled in. Broadcasters were falling over each other to book the god tier donkey to invigorate their panel of lesser donkeys. One even started making road trip programmes where some hysterical idiot would guffaw at all the cheeky donkey things Roy would say. His current gig as chief podcast donkey helps to infect our youth with his vitriol whilst affording him credence to become a flat out lying donkey.
Our lives has become dominated by donkeys, loud orange donkeys, racist donkeys that pretend to live in Clacton, and donkeys obsessed with being the first donkey on Mars. As donkeys go they are far more dangerous than Roy but we’re now in a situation where he is loved for being a donkey, praised for being a donkey, going viral for being a donkey. Its maddening. We shouldn’t have people aspiring to be donkeys.
Dave, Manchester (apologies to actual donkeys)
I’ll keep it short because it can be discussed forever and every United fan has their own take on this depending on their age, propensity to Stan, etc.
The class of ’92 era ex-united players in the media are largely weird and come across bitter and desperate for attention (excl. giggs who likes a low profile for another reason lol). Which is weird in itself given they are successful, wealthy, revered amongst fans, Have little/nothing to gain from it, etc. You can debate, hypothesize and explain what side of the argument you fall on and effectively get to no consensus because the legends will always have Stans and Bruno will always have Stans. But we can all agree surely that it’s f**king weird. Alas, the short take on Keane from me now is that he’s transitioned fully from;
Hard-man, legend who ‘says it as he sees it’ and drives high standards
to
‘Oh my Grandad’s sh*t his pants again and is hurling racist abuse at the lamppost’.
It’s sad and embarrassing. What a weird f**king bunch, shame on Sky, etc. for platforming these goons, we have talksport for that.
Moses
After years of Paul Scholes embarrassing himself by pretending to be permanently furious on every podcast, YouTube channel etc he can find, it was genuinely enjoyable seeing him actually seething for real while Salford City got dismantled by Notts County.
Seeing him sat at Wembley scowling while the equally tedious Gary Neville bubbled with rage a couple of rows behind him was absolutely glorious.
Ant MUFC (Bravo Notts County)
Taking the Michael
I find it very curious how people are so sure of what Carrick’s ceiling might be. Is he less tactically astute than Arteta? If so, why did he beat him, at their own ground no less (and 2 in 2 so far)? And City. And Liverpool. And Villa. And Chelsea.
At the same time people throw around his lack of experience in managing at this level. Sure, but then you only get that experience by experiencing it. And so far, so good. But then you can’t judge his ceiling can you? Based on the evidence currently available, he’s the best manager the league has known. Now, no one believes that to be the case, but you simply don’t know what he can do yet. Every manager starts somewhere.
On to vibes. They alone aren’t a way to maintain success, but they are actually fairly important. Having a happy team that enjoys their football, where the squad celebrates each other, is actually very powerful. Sure, they need to be supported by tactical direction, but there’s been enough variety to suggest that is happening on a game-by-game basis and it’s generally seemed to work. More-so than the anti-vibes of the previous manager.
The simple fact is that no one truly knows what United under Carrick can do across a full season, but the signs are positive and if the board deliver this summer like they did last, I can see why people want to under-credit the manager. Consolidation next year is the key.
Final thought: Arsenal vs PSG. Weirdly, while I definitely have a preference on the outcome, this game is a win-win for us. If Arsenal win, it shuts down talk that we should have gone for Enrique; and if PSG win, well, I won’t be unhappy.
Badwolf
Arsenal will not retain
Hello Esteemed Editor, how are you? I’m fine thanks.
As much as I would love for Arsenal to retain the Premier League title next year, I’m fairly confident that they won’t.
The mental energy expended to win it this year after so many years of near misses will mean that next year the players (and probably Arteta himself) will be so drained that to rouse themselves for another massive effort would be borderline superhuman. I just feel that it will be a season of mental recovery in that sense. Couple that with a World Cup that will allow scant physical respite before next season starts and I just don’t see the players being able to summon the same, necessary level again.
They’ll be top 4-5 because they definitely have the highest ‘floor’ of any of the top teams. I just don’t think that top spot will happen next year.
And that’s absolutely fine because the monkey has been well and truly jettisoned from the airlock this year.
Andrew
Arsenal do not feel like a new Goliath just yet
Matt in Australia’s submission this morning was fun. Is there something about expat football fans that makes them even more prone to hyperbole when they pitch up on the other side of the world? The Liverpool fan in LA who often writes in strikes me as being cut from the same cloth. It’s like they have to shout louder to make themselves heard among the noise surrounding NFL/NBA/AFL/insert indigenous sport here.
Anyway, back to Matt and his claims that Arsenal are some kind of existential threat to the equilibrium that rival fans apparently treasure. Pecking orders being disrupted, tall poppy syndrome etc. Reframing a title win that’s 2 days old as some seminal changing of the guard, signalling that there’s a new top dog in town. Woof woof.
You know who you sound exactly like mate? All the Liverpool fans who were crowing about the defence of their title being a fait accompli about 10 months ago. Desperately searching for some wider affirmation of superiority, when the simple fact that you won the league should be more than enough. A classic example of being drunk on schadenfreude.
You’re not wrong to suggest that fandom is tribal, or to identify City as the preferred alternative winner because their achievements are easy to dismiss with a wave of the magic 115 wand. That’s the least painful outcome for every other tribe. But Arsenal are not harbingers of some exquisite age of suffering for the rest of us.
A quick look at the mailbox over the past week would show that their title win has long since been denigrated because it was built on an over-reliance on set pieces, boring patterns of play etc. It’s the exact same coping mechanism that’s been used to deal with City hoovering up trophies, just shifted a few degrees to retrain its focus. And nothing you say will puncture that logic.
So is the win really that consequential or hard to move past? Maybe it is for you, as you hug your Gunnersaurus plush in an echo chamber in Sydney or Melbourne or wherever. And maybe to Spurs fans, whose proximity to the mass ejaculation of the past week will have made it impossible to escape. But that’s not enough to declare Arsenal an object of anxiety for the rest of us, we’re a ways off that. For the moment, they’re just a novel break from the norm of the past 20+ years.
Maybe we revisit this in 12 months’ time with Arsenal having retained the league in dominant fashion. Maybe not. But right now, surely you’re better off enjoying your club’s success than speculating that you’ll have a permanent wellspring of salty tears to drink from going forward? Just a thought.
Keith Reilly
Fan service
I’m sorry, but while you can blame players, clubs and owners for getting relegated, leave the fans out of it.
I’ve seen both West Ham and Spurs-supporting mates in turmoil these past few months and they both have one thing in common.
And that is that they are at the mercy of something they have no control over. I’m sure if West Ham had polled their actual fans about leaving the Boelyn, most would have said, No.
Similarly, I’m sure most Spurs fans probably don’t care that their club has signed a commercial deal with Peppa Pig.
Both sets of fans deserve better.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
The right ‘mann
Commentators on LFC appear to be claiming there is no-one on the market yet I cannot see why the suits up there aren’t giving Julian Naggelsmann all summer to go to Anfield .
He has a high enough profile , targeted transfers would want to play for him, he is young and talented .
Negotiations, I understand , could not happen before they got eliminated , but a staightforward ‘are you up for it Julian ? could have already been put to him .
Congratulations to Bolton Wanderers.
Good luck to the Gunners by the Danube .
Peter . Andalucia
Hate pie and Chelsea knee-jerking
Here’s a knee jerk opinion for you – Chelsea to be comfortably top four and still be in the title race come March. No European football and the likes of Joao Pedro, Cole Palmer, Andrey Santos, Estevao, Fofana spending summer with their feet up while other teams star players are running themselves into the ground in the US heat? Huge advantage.
While I’m here I think that one big reason that this current Arsenal team are attracting unprecedented levels of bile is down to how poor all the other big teams that fans love to hate have been.
We’ve laughed at Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea this season but it’s hard to hate them when they’re doing so badly. Man United have been on a run of hate-inducing form since Carrick took over but their season was essentially over by February. Even City, strange as it is to say for a team that won two cups and were in the title race until the 2nd last game of the season, had an underwhelming season. Just goes to show the standards Pep has set I guess.
So the hate pie which is normally sliced up between six or seven teams has just been one big chunk of Arsenal this year. That and the corners, time-wasting and light bulbs obviously.
Conor Malone (Donegal).
Woop-woop
Quick word if I may on the number one bugbear of mine with modern football: policing how fans should react to their club’s achievements.
Even under the guise of banter, it’s incredibly weak and goes some way to explains why so much modern, online-inspired support has left Premier League crowds feeling insipid and soulless.
This weekend was prime example: Spurs fans were getting crucified for lining the streets, bringing pyros, flags, and atmosphere before a relegation decider, filling up the stadium, and celebrating at the final whistle. Based on all the accompanying noise, the average rival fan considers this to be tinpot. Apparently it’s much more appropriate for fans to line the streets and show support only when their team is actually winning something.
Yes, the social media inspired, constant attention seeking upmanship of modern football and all of its tiresome banter wants us believe that unless you want to be outed as an utter embarrassment, real fans actually stay quiet until they win something that only a handful of clubs in the world are financially capable of. “You only sing when you’re winning” no longer means anything anymore apparently.
Celebration policing that sanitizes football of its very soul can get fully in the bin.
Greg
What were Everton doing? Well…
Everton are managed by one David Moyes – ludicrously sacked by West Ham after winning their first European silverware in a couple of generations.
Clearly Everton, with nothing at stake on the final day, were doing their manager a favour & making it crystal clear that Weat Ham shot their own foot off in sacking Moyes.
Revenge is a dish best served cold
Patrick
The right result
Dear F365,
After all the online rage and ridiculousness…and it’s felt far worse this year than I remember other seasons being.
After the controversies (Is there any fanbase of a Premier league club that still thinks VAR is a good idea?).
After the conspiracy theories about games thrown and pgmol favouring teams.
After some truly great games (United 4-4 Bournemouth and Fulham 4-5 City stand out) and some performances that left you wonder what league you were watching (West Ham vs Wolves and Spurs Vs Newcastle spring to mind).
After all that, ultimately, the best team won the league, and the worst three went down. So, I guess the system works?
Kind regards
Sam
READ MORE: Premier League season winners | Premier League season losers
