When Roy was there we were a different animal

TWO DECADES ON FROM KEANO'S IRELAND SWANSONG, KERR AND KILBANE RECALL FINAL FLOURISH

- Garry DOYLE

THERE are rows and then there are rows.

And three arguments stand out more than any others in Irish history: 800 years fighting 'them across the water'; Dev versus Collins; and of course, the mother and father of all disputes, Roy versus Mick.

For years, rumours of a Keane/McCarthy split had worked its way through the press box and finally, in May 2002, onto the front page as idle gossip became an unmistakable fact.

This was a year after Keane had produced two of the greatest individual performances an Irish football audience had seen, when he shone against the Portuguese and then the Dutch in Lansdowne Road.

It wasn't just that he was Manchester United's captain, a serial Premier League winner, Europe's best midfielder.

Hed also been named Football Writers Player of the Year in 2000, just the second Irishman to collect this 77-year-old prize.

When he was at his peak, no Premier League player was considered as influential on the park; no one as controversial or as opinionated off it.

That's how important a player he was back in the early years of this century ahead of Saipan, the biggest heavyweight tear up on a Pacific island since the Thrilla in Manila.

The difference is that with Ali-Frazier, there was a winner.

With Keane/McCarthy, everyone lost the captain, the manager, the team.

"It was the biggest story in my career, the biggest story in Irish football history," recalls Kevin Kilbane, who was in Saipan when it all kicked off between Mick and Roy and who was also in the Lansdowne Road dressing room for Keane's last match as an Ireland player.

This week is the 20th anniversary of that landmark, a half forgotten moment that put a full stop on the international career of arguably our best ever player, most definitely our most controversial one.