Inside Roy Keane at Celtic: Told by those who were there

The Irishman never hid his desire to pull on the famous green and white jersey. In December 2005, Keane fulfilled his long-held ambition when he signed an 18-month deal with Gordon Strachan's side on a wage of £15,000 a week.

Keane joined on a free after 12 years at Manchester United - eight of them as captain. These halcyon days had come to an end in controversial circumstances after an infamous public spat with manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Various clubs courted Keane's signature, with Real Madrid and Everton declaring their interest, but he spurned their advances and opted for his boyhood heroes.

Keane said in his 2014 autobiography: "I wouldn't have called it a dream, but I always liked Celtic and the Irish connection would have always been on the back of my mind. I felt a bit of loyalty to them, and this decision was purely a selfish one. I just wanted to play for Glasgow Celtic. It's a special club." 

Keane's time in Glasgow was short, lasting just six months. He played 13 times and scored once in a 2-1 league win over Falkirk, helping Celtic win the Scottish Premiership and the Scottish League Cup before a hip injury forced him to call time on his career in June 2006.

When he walked into Paradise, he was one of the world's most well-known and controversial players. He remains, to this day, a figure of fascination as arguably the most forthright and entertaining pundit on television, still known for his combustible, argumentative nature. 

So what was it like to share a dressing room with Roy Keane at the height of his fame? The Celtic Way finds out.

Walking into the Celtic dressing room 

Neil Lennon readily admits that he immediately felt under threat from Keane's arrival.

Here was a thoroughbred racehorse, arriving from the world's biggest club and its best league.

Okay, he was no spring chicken any more, but there was little to suggest the Scottish league would pose too many problems, even at 34.

And off the pitch, Keane's reputation was just as formidable with several ferocious public spats and a spate of brutal red cards.

It turns out Lennon needn't have worried, though.

He said: "It was really interesting when Roy Keane signed. We both played in the same position, so I was thinking, 'Oh, oh, I'm in trouble here'.

"He was brilliant around the place, but it was short-lived. I'd have loved to have played with him a lot longer than I did.

"He fitted in great, and a lot of the young boys at first were like. 'It's Roy Keane!' and quite right as well because of the player and the guy he was.

 "He was great with everyone and, you know, we'd have a few nights out and Dion Dublin was playing for Celtic as well and we'd just sit after games and chat away. Roy was brilliant company."

Ex-Celtic midfielder and Bulgarian teammate Stiliyan Petrov recalls Keane had an aura and a presence, but despite everything he had achieved in the game, possessed no ego, and had a humility and compassion for others that enabled him to settle into life in the Glasgow goldfish bowl instantly.

Petrov said: "Roy had an aura and a presence, but above all, the right word is respect. His status around the pitch and everything he had achieved were there for all of us to see.

"He arrived at Celtic on the back of falling out with Ferguson, but there was nothing like that at the club. Everybody was happy to have Roy Keane at Celtic. He was looking after himself and training hard. He never missed a session, and he always wanted to lead by example. 

"Everybody in that dressing room knew their place, and when Roy came in, he automatically became one of the leaders. He had a big voice and we knew what he stood for from day one.

"He made it very easy for us as he was approachable and his communication was brilliant. He was interested in his teammates' personal stories as he asked a lot of questions about our lives, what we had been through, and about our families.

"He cared about people, and we all respected that even more. He was a family man, and he was just a great guy to be around."

Ross Wallace was an academy youngster who broke into the Celtic first team at the time of Keane's arrival at the club

A lifelong Manchester United fan, Wallace idolised Keane growing up, but quickly shed the hero worship status.

Wallace said: "Roy was brilliant with the younger lads. He took a shine to us all, and we all loved him. He had other clubs keen to sign him, but he wanted to pull on the Celtic jersey. He knocked back Real Madrid. That's the lure of Celtic. It is a unique football club, and I have spent the majority of my career in England, and there are few clubs, if any, like Celtic.

"I was a Manchester United fan growing up, and I revered him. For the first few days, the young guys were like 'Jesus, that's Roy Keane!'

"It was probably difficult for him at first because he knew all eyes were on him.  After a week or so, he just became one of the players in the squad. That aura in the dressing room just melted away."

The Keane stare

Keane led by example both on and off the field. He was a natural-born leader of men after 12 years at the sharp end of Old Trafford.

While he had good relationships with the squad, woe betide any player, senior or youngster, if they were caught slacking on the job.

The infamous Keane stare became something nobody at the training ground wanted to experience.

Lennon said: "He was a fantastic trainer. Roy was ferocious. Even doing the rondos, he wanted the quality to be high all the time. If it wasn't, you got the Keane stare. That was worse than being shouted at, as being bawled out was over in a second. He was stitching the young players up on the rondos as well!"

Petrov recalls the passing training drill that was eventually to be made famous and turned into an art form by Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.

"When we were doing rondos, some of the boys would try little flicks, and he would have a few words, or worse still, he would give them the look. The Keane stare. No words were required. It was scary but enjoyable to see at the same time. 

"Roy demanded the very highest standards from the young kids at Celtic. The young players needed that in order to do the right things. It was about protecting and looking after the ball and doing things with purpose, and Roy tried to drum that into them every day at training.

"He told them that they had to be concentrated and focused at all times. That attitude rubbed off on us all as the first team players, never mind the youngsters. We all looked after the ball better when Roy was in the team.

"We were desperate to make the right decisions in games, and when somebody like Roy implements something like that in training and is the driving force behind it, then it makes a huge difference."

Wallace recalls how the crop of young stars he was part of was pushed on by the relentless standards of the world star they were suddenly training with. And it wasn't the stare they were worried about, quite the opposite.

He said: "Celtic had Aiden McGeady, Shaun Maloney, Stephen McManus and me, and we all did group stuff in the gym. Roy gave everything in training, and that's the same advice that the likes of Tommy Burns would tell the younger players every day.

"If you slacked off and took the day off and never gave it 100 per cent, that's when Roy had a problem with you. Even in the rondo's he would smash one into you, and he would look straight through you if you messed up.

"He would be looking at you as if to say, 'you can't handle that?' The worst thing was when you didn't get the harsh words or the stare, and he didn't even look at you.

"He demanded that you were at full pelt every day. It wasn't a bad thing as the standards were raised and we were all the better for it. He could handle mistakes; it was slackness that he couldn't tolerate. That's when he would come down hard on you.

"If you were doing three sets of ten press-ups, pull-ups, squats or whatever, and you did six, he would make you do the ten. He would wait for you to complete the set. He would be standing there saying, 'You've only done six, you've got four to go!' If you did half a pull-up, he would say that's six-and-a-half. You did what you were told when he was around.

"He didn't come up to you and coach you or anything like that. He just led by example. This is how he did it. If you wanted to copy what he did, then it would serve you well. If you didn't, then so be it.

"His training and the way he played spoke volumes. He was big on character. That was massive for Roy. He probably got that from Sir Alex Ferguson."

The other side of Roy

It's obvious now from his Sky appearances that Keane possesses a wicked sense of humour. Back in 2006, he was more of an enigma. 

But Keane has always had a twinkle in his eye and a bit of devilment.

Lennon said: "I played against him at Manchester United many times, for Leicester. The first time was in the League Cup on a Wednesday, and then again on a Saturday in the league.

"So, ahead of the first game, the club did a feature in the programme 'Through the Keyhole'. It just happened to be my house that was pictured.

"I'd not long moved in, I was living on my own, and I said to the photographer, if he could try and make it look habitable. I just had a sofa bed and a telly, nothing in the kitchen, a nice garden, but no furniture or anything.

"Anyway, the guy did a good job of it. So, Roy and I go for a fifty-fifty challenge, and the two of us are pulling at each other, and he goes, I've just seen your house in that programme.

"I said: 'Do you like it?' He goes, 'my double garage is bigger!' We just both fell about laughing. I couldn't concentrate for a good few minutes after that quip.

"I've always had a good relationship with him. We played Man United in the Europa League with Omonia and Gary Parker had played with him at Nottingham Forest.

"So, we rang Roy and said: 'Look, we're going to be in Manchester, we're staying with Worsley, Marriott. Do you want to come up for a cup of tea?

"Roy came and he sat with us for three hours, and he was brilliant. I said to the Omonia boys who were all there 'when Roy Keane walks in, you've got to stand up and clap him as he comes in'.

"He was raging at that. He took a big beamer. He said: 'Did you set that up? Thankfully, Roy saw the funny side of it."

Petrov insists that Keane's sense of humour was magical once you got a handle on it.

He said: "He's a great man, and not many people understand him. People talk about ego, but it is not ego with Roy. He achieved so much, and he knew what he stood for, and that was to go about his business by doing the right things in the right manner."

Wallace can also vouch for Keane's quirky personality.

"Roy was a great laugh, too," he said. "Sometimes his humour was dry and very droll. People see Roy as this hard-nosed kind of guy, but he wasn't like that at all."

(Image: SNS Group Bill Murray)

Disaster at Broadwood 

Celtic succumbed to one of the worst results in their history when Joe Miller and Graham Roberts' Clyde stunned Strachan's side by bundling them out of the Scottish Cup at Broadwood Stadium.

It was Keane's first introduction to Scottish football, and the headlines were dominated by one man beforehand, but his new team served up a Scottish Cup horror show in Cumbernauld and lost 2-1.

Lennon revealed that words were exchanged in the dressing room as the captain addressed the Celtic players. Keane also waded in with his tuppenceworth.

Lennon said: "A lot was made of the Clyde game. It was a poor result, and it was Roy's first game. He had a few words to say at the end. It was nothing mental. Then I had a few words, because I was the captain, and then that was it. We parked it.

"It was embarrassing, obviously, and embarrassing for all of us, but particularly him, because all the spotlight had been on him, but things quickly settled down, and then he went on to win the League Cup, and won the League by a long way again."

Petrov insisted that Keane was philosophical about it all in the end.

He said: "Roy hadn't played in a while for Manchester United, and we had been drawn to play Clyde in the Scottish Cup and at Broadwood Stadium.

"It was a difficult day for everyone connected with Celtic, not just Roy. He is a human being and he has feelings at the end of the day, but it was not a great start to his Celtic career as we all witnessed.

"He put it behind him swiftly, and he tried to get up to speed as quickly as possible after that episode. Roy didn't play with a full-strength Celtic team that day as Strachan made some changes, but I don't think that bothered him a lot. He had been through many difficult moments in his career, and to him, this was just another setback that had to be dealt with."

Wallace reckoned that Keane was on a hiding to nothing as the full media glare and spotlight were on him.

He said:  "That was one of those games when all the focus and attention were on Roy. The starting team was a bit of a mish-mash.

"Celtic should still have gone out and won that football match, but we didn't. We still had enough in that team to win that game, but somehow we contrived to get beaten."

(Image: SNS Group Aubrey Washington)

Redemption at Ibrox 

Keane redeemed himself in the eyes of the Celtic supporters when he put on a midfield masterclass in a 1-0 victory over Rangers at Ibrox in his only appearance in a Glasgow derby.

Maciej Zurawski's early strike is enough to settle a match which saw Keane fulfil his ultimate ambition with Celtic.

The midfielder was in imperious form as Keane, Lennon, and Petrov stifled Barry Ferguson's Rangers. Keane even picks up a yellow card for his troubles.

"Roy was brilliant that day at Ibrox," Lennon reflected. "He crunched Dado Perso early in the game. I thought, yeah, it's going to be a good day, as he set the tone.

"He'd always said he wanted to play against Rangers. Playing for Celtic against Rangers and winning is special, but it was his only Rangers game.

"Roy played great. He just had that influence on the Celtic team. Roy was like all the great players in the league. He was always that type of player who, no matter in the hurly-burly of the game, always looked as if he had time on the ball. I think he earned that as well."

Petrov saw a player approaching the twilight of his career, making the Glasgow derby at Ibrox all look so easy.

He said: "Roy's Ibrox game against Rangers was a masterclass in midfield. He owned that game from start to finish. His movement, his body shape, his passing and his quick decision making were all on point. He made the right tackles, and his communication skills that day made a huge difference to us."

Wallace believes to this day that Keane was fulfilling a lifelong dream on behalf of his family.

He said: " I have played in the English Premier League, and the pace of the game is totally different. When you look at the calibre of players Roy played with and against, the quality of opposition is first-class.

"Roy came up and sampled the derby at Ibrox, and he probably thought the game was being played in slow motion. He always wanted to play in a derby game, and I know Roy and his family, and they are all Celtic men.

"He enjoyed that day at Ibrox, but I think he'll look back on that game as being one for the family more than anything else. To see Roy wearing that Celtic shirt and playing that fixture was a proud day for them all."

(Image: SNS Group Jeff Holmes)

The end game

It was definitely a case of the right player at the wrong time for Celtic. Keane's Celtic career was far too short.  When the hip injury became too much to bear, the Irishman rightfully decided to bring the curtain down.

Lennon wonders if Keane hadn't lost some of his love for the game after the acrimonious parting of the ways at Old Trafford.

However, the 53-year-old insists that he played with two world-class players in all his time at Celtic. One of them was Henrik Larsson. The other is Keane.

"I think Roy was hurt about what happened at Manchester  United," said Lennon. "I don't think he would admit it publicly, and he never talked about it with us, but I think it really sort of hurt him. I don't know if it dampened his love for the game.

"He's such an iconic figure in the game. Roy Keane was a world-class player 100 per cent. No question about it.  He is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League of all time.

"It was an honour to play with him. We didn't play long enough together. I played with Larsson, and he's the best I've ever played with. So when you play with players like that it's an absolute privilege."

Petrov has no regrets. He is just thankful it happened.

He said: "How many people can say that they have had the pleasure of playing alongside Roy Keane?

"I became his teammate, his friend, and I value that greatly. It is one of those lucky moments in your career when you have the opportunity to play on the same team as a legend.

"I know Roy had Real Madrid and Everton beating a path to his door to sign him when he left Manchester United. Put it this way, Celtic is Celtic. He wanted to play for the club, and that tells you all you need to know."