Bullying in Sport

[bodacious benny]

I read this article about Roy Keane's alleged behavior in his role as ROI coach. In any other line of work he'd be fired, why is football / sport in general seen as having a different set of rules?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/spor ... -0nqk3kd83

Is it because people are wrapped up in their own egos? Or because some people have never had to grow up? It's generally seen as acceptable to have a 'hard man' that goes around doing this kind of stuff, but it serves no purpose whatsoever and is completely out of line. No wonder he failed so badly as a manager.

[Sir Bobby]

Could you copy and paste por favor?

[bodacious benny]

SpoilerShow

Why is Roy Keane indulged? I have never understood it. The Irishman plays on his reputation as a straight shooter, a man who cuts through the ****, a motivator who imposes his will. There is, however, an alternative description: a bully who has never learnt to grow up.

Sorry if that sounds somewhat direct, but why not give Keane a taste of his own medicine? His latest rant was directed at Harry Arter in his role as the Ireland assistant manager. Arter is an accomplished midfielder who is on loan at Cardiff City from Bournemouth and has been praised for his work ethic and professionalism.

In May, Arter was receiving treatment for an injury a few days before a match against France, when Keane reportedly stormed into the medical room to confront him. According to Stephen Ward, a team-mate of Arter, Keane said: “When are you going to train you f***ing prick?” and when the 28-year-old explained that Martin O’Neill was aware of the treatment, he kept on going. “You’re a f***ing prick, you’re a c***, you don’t even care, you don’t wanna train.”

Keane will doubtless interpret this incident as evidence of his own candour, and his unique capacity to call out weaknesses in others. He will also interpret Arter’s decision to withdraw from this month’s international games against Wales and Poland as the act of a snowflake, someone the team could do without. With Keane, this is often the way. The collateral damage is always someone else’s fault.

This column is not long enough to chronicle all the rants, bust-ups and general mayhem that Keane has left in his wake, but it would be remiss not to mention his storming out of the Irish camp at the 2002 World Cup after confronting Mick McCarthy, or the premeditated horror tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland in 2001, retribution for a spat between the two players four years earlier. “I’d waited long enough. I f***ing hit him hard . . . Take that you c***,” Keane wrote in his first autobiography. “Even in the dressing room afterwards, I had no remorse. My attitude was, f*** him.”

You may remember that the FA slapped Keane with a £150,000 fine and five-match suspension for admitting the lunge was planned, but even then the Irishman couldn’t bring himself to take responsibility. Instead, he blamed his ghostwriter. In his second autobiography, almost 15 years after an incident that compromised Haaland’s career, Keane was still incapable of showing remorse. “There are things I regret in my life and he’s not one of them,” he said.

Keane, we may say, is a man who nurses grudges and vendettas. As assistant manager of Ireland, he has not just fallen out with Arter, but also Jon Walters and others within the camp. The disruption is, understandably, affecting morale. As Liam Brady, that voice of decency, put it: “Every time there is an international match there is a story about Roy Keane, whether he is having a go at somebody or launching another book of his. Martin O’Neill, or the powers that be, have to say, ‘Enough of this.’ This has got to stop.” Ireland lost 4-1 to Wales this month, but drew with Poland last week.

Why is O’Neill determined to persevere with Keane? One can only imagine that he has bought into the well-manicured mythology. Keane the straight talker. Keane the enforcer. Keane the man who can bring exacting standards to the team. This, of course, is the conflation that has protected Keane for too long, the idea that his tongue lashings reveal some warped version of professionalism rather than a bully who likes to belittle, humiliate and traduce, not to help the team, but to appease his own petty-mindedness.

There is no doubt that Keane was a phenomenal player, central to the success of United for more than a decade. Indeed, I wonder if getting the best out of the Irishman for so long was one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s signal achievements. People often talk about the Scot’s consummate handling of Eric Cantona, but channelling the combustibility of Keane took wisdom and judgment.

But they fell out spectacularly (sound familiar?) when Keane left United. He came to begrudge his former club, taking no responsibility for his astonishing rant at team-mates on MUTV. His autobiography was shot-through with yet more invective against Ferguson and, indeed, Carlos Queiroz, the assistant manager, who had done so much to help him. As for his club car, he kept it for three months, despite a contractual obligation to return it, attempting to run it into the ground. “I drove some f***ing miles in that car,” he said. “Every little victory is vital.”

On talkSPORT recently, Tony Cascarino, of this parish, was moved to describe Keane as “a hypocrite”. “Everyone keeps talking about Roy being this great professional, [that] he demands the highest standards,” he said. “Roy was never a great professional, I can promise you he was anything but. What he did and has done in the past as a coach is not professional. Having a go at players and being personal, that’s the massive difference.”

This was a wonderful skewering of the Keane mythology from someone who knows him better than most. There is a broader point here too. I have long believed that frank conversations between coaches and players are important in sport. Sugarcoating tough messages can detract from their meaning and force. A player needs to hear if they are not training with sufficient energy, if they need to lose weight, if they need to shape up. These conversations may not be easy, but they are vital.

It is worth saying, then, that Keane’s antics do not cross a line; rather, they emerge from a different species of interaction. Bullying and belittling are not techniques designed to get the best out of players; they are techniques designed to elevate the bully. His modus operandi is about one-upmanship, dominance and score-settling. He seems to think that being a fine player implies that he is a fine coach, but his actions ultimately show just how different these roles are.

Few have been less suited to coaching, and even fewer have got away with such shocking behaviour for so long. O’Neill should get rid of him, or go himself.

[Toondes]

Great player but a massive cronut of a man.

[Remember Colo]

A good read, and well put. It's obvious his drama is always selfish, and never for the good of the team, or now the players playing under him. There's a big difference between being disciplined and exacting in preparation, and just being an a**hole stirring up s*** for his own pleasure.

[Chappy]

Great player but a massive cronut of a man.

Yup.

[bodacious benny]

There's a big difference between being disciplined and exacting in preparation, and just being an a**hole stirring up s*** for his own pleasure.

Yes, this.

Sounds like he acts like some sort of jumped up drill sergeant from a Vietnam war movie.

[Don Sholeone]

Always seen Keane as someone who is very insecure, everything he does he has to coat it in a hard man image, the media over the years hasn't helped in the way they have glorified his behaviour, also all you need to do is look at his reaction to shearer that time, when someone stands up to him and shows him up he has to up his aggression and intimidation to make himself feel like hes winning the situation.

[Sir Bobby]

He’s also impressively boring and discomforting as a pundit. He seems to put the other pundits on edge whilst offering absolutely zero insight. Anger and bitterness exudes from him and it makes me wanna go kick a puppy and snatch a dummy from a baby, which, typically, I don’t have the urge to do

[ColbacksFlamingBarnet]

also all you need to do is look at his reaction to shearer that time

Keane is a relic from a bygone era. Either that or he's trying to use Fergie's hairdryer treatment without understanding why that worked and that Fergie individualised it for each player, rather than just be a prick to everyone.

[krully]

We have two Sunderland rejects in charge, one who's never at training, the other a massive cronut, add the useless FAI that are just as lazy as MON and people wonder where it all went wrong.
Showers of s****

[lassassinblanc]

There's a big difference between being disciplined and exacting in preparation, and just being an a**hole stirring up s*** for his own pleasure.

Yes, this.

Sounds like he acts like some sort of jumped up drill sergeant from a Vietnam war movie.

Pretty much sums up Keane alright. A lot of rumours (haven't read above so not sure if it is contained as part of it) that Declan Rice's self exclusion is linked to this too. either he overheard Keane's rant towards Arter or he was on the end of one himself.

As you state if you done what he done in any other job you'd be sacked. Of course Keane denies the allegations, Harry Arter hasn't actually come out himself and said what happened it's all come out via a third persons story (Stephen Ward ) who wasn't in the squad at the time. Walters and Keane have never really got on so most likely some of it has been exaggerated as he is most likely who told Ward of the fights.

[Blue & Maroon]

Great player but a massive cronut of a man.

Completely overhyped in the coaching world as well. Done f*** all but believes his hard man persona means he's a god. Dunno how anyone can like him.

[Chappy]

I'd knock him out.

[ALF]

Bloke is an idiot.

[Toondes]

I'd knock him out.

Says one can van dam