With Manchester City being promoted as well, it is not particularly going to help a healthy rivalry in the city.”Although Keane caught Haaland’s right leg, the Norwegian is believed to be arguing the impact also exacerbated problems in his left leg, from which he has never recovered. He is expected to claim for loss of future earnings, while Manchester City point to Haaland’s absence from the rest of their 2000-01 campaign, which eventually resulted in their relegation.The former Chelsea defender Paul Elliott and Bradford striker Gordon Watson have both launched similar actions in recent years, although with differing results. Elliott was unsuccessful in his bid to sue Dean Saunders for damage sustained in a tackle from which he never recovered, while Watson pocketed a £500,000 pay-out after being felled by Kevin Gray during a West Yorkshire derby with Huddersfield.. This week we have learnt rather more about the workings of Roy Keane’s psyche than his manager and club would have wished. Allowing for some licence from Keane’s “ghost”, Eamon Dunphy, in the Manchester United man’s soon-to-be-published autobiography, we are informed that he put a personal fatwa on Manchester City’s Alf-Inge Haaland (so, what was that all about, Alfie?); informed Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy prior to his solo flight back from the Far East, “You’re a f****** w***** and you can stick the World Cup up your arse”; and, not for the first time, roundly castigated his own team-mates, present and past “We weren’t hungry fighters any more… some were getting away with murder.”

This week we have learnt rather more about the workings of Roy Keane’s psyche than his manager and club would have wished.

some were getting away with murder.”
We are all familiar with clog-and-yell tomes issued under the names of sundry footballers, but what raises such a work from dross to drama is when the words are those of a captain, a manager’s representative on turf, especially when that man has come to epitomise the spirit of Manchester United over the last decade. Like “Captain Courageous”, Bryan Robson, before him, the United skipper has almost become a mystical beast, blessed with seemingly supernatural powers. How often do we witness the epithets “Captain Fantastic” applied to Keane, even if the remainder of Sir Alex Ferguson’s maligned squad did manage to win games without him, not least a Champions’ League final? It is what bonds manager and captain and explains why the former has always forgiven the latter.Publicly, at least, Ferguson appears far from dismayed about Keane’s literary pugilism, an attitude that is apparently diametrically opposed to his views when Jaap Stam launched into print. Some have even suggested that the manager would be “thrilled” by Keane’s declarations, because he is the one United player who is imbued with the same passion and antipathy towards defeat as himself.Perhaps But unlikely. Not when Old Trafford’s most solid piece of armoury appears to have worked itself loose. There is constructive criticism and there is an emotional scattergun condemnation. Keane doesn’t name names, perhaps understandably, but in not doing so he has left every other player harbouring the suspicion that the vitriol is directed at him.Gary Neville is one player who has been a recipient of that narrowing of the eyes, the preface to chastisement that pours forth from Keane which is capable of transforming cream into yoghurt at 50 paces.

Neville G may or may not be in the mind of Asterisk – as we should possibly now refer to Keane, given the number required in the serialised extracts – but one can think of a number of performers who will take great exception to the Irishman’s views. Whether a million-pound-plus professional or a Sunday-morning junkie paying for the privilege of playing on a mudheap, nobody takes kindly to one man setting himself in judgement and effectively suggesting that only he possesses absolute commitment to the cause.Take Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The unassuming Norwegian has spent many hours biding his time on the bench, and will always be in the shadow of Ruud van Nistelrooy, but in his own way you would not find a more dedicated player.On top of all this, there is the prospect of Football Association sanctions regarding Keane’s admission about the assault on Haaland (as if anyone believed his challenge was merely mistimed in the first place) and also legal action by the Manchester City player and his club. As Leeds discovered last year, such matters can be extremely distracting.