Before the club opened its current facilities at Lennoxtown, Roy Keane was one of the final Celtic signings to have to train at Barrowfield. The former captain of Manchester United has talked about how surprised he was to learn about the subpar training facilities Celtic had when he signed with the team in December 2005, following his departure from Old Trafford.
Roy Keane stated, “I went to Celtic, an iconic and amazing club,” on the most recent episode of Gary Neville’s podcast, “Stick to Football.”
“The training ground wasn’t really visible to me, but the stadium is incredible. I’m going back a few years; currently, they have a decent one. I was in the Celtic dressing room. We had changed at Celtic Park and were driving to the ground with our gear and boots.
“I was injured all the time; I didn’t even kick a ball against Celtic.” Even though I was completely at ease at Manchester United—and I treasured every second of my time there—I did find it refreshing to spend six months in a different locker room.
“The Celtic lads, there were one or two idiots but generally speaking, they are great lads. I mixed with different lads, different dynamics, and I really enjoyed my time at Celtic.”
If the training ground facilities at Celtic have been improved considerably in the intervening period – and Celtic are currently spending millions developing new facilities at Barrowfield too for the Celtic FC Women and Celtic Academy’s use, then there’s another matter Roy Keane raised in the ‘Stick to Football’ Podcast that does suggest that there’s a current day similarity and that nothing much has changed at the club.
It seems that when Gordon Strachan replaced Martin O’Neill as Celtic manager in May 2005 he came to the club with no great confidence in his own ability to ‘spot a player’ and was therefore happy to leave transfer activity and decisions to others. Strachan, if Keane’s revelation is correct, limited himself to coaching the players at his disposal.
“Celtic and Gordon had a bit of success, but he said he backed away from all transfers. He went, ‘I’ve bought too many bad players’. Gordon held his hand up and said, ‘I’m not good at spotting players and bringing players in’.” Keane said.
“He’d obviously had some success in terms bringing players in when he was at Coventry, but he got to the stage where he went, ‘I’m backing away from all (transfers)’. I’m sure he had some sort of conversations but didn’t get involved and that’s an experienced manager.”
There’s probably some truth in this, although you can think of players who clearly were Strachan signings and Paul Telfer for example springs immediately to mind. However it does strongly suggest that someone else at Celtic as far back as 2005 was making the signing decisions for the manager.
Wonder who that could have been?
Roy Keane’s transfer to Celtic and his time at the club is covered extensively in Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan that tells the story of Gordon Strachan’s first season at Celtic. It’s available on hardback in the Winter Sale at Celtic Star Books for HALF PRICE for short period. Order your copy HERE.
Incidentally these Roy Keane comments are being widely shared by both the mainstream media and the Celtic fan media sites. However in a class of their own is Daily Record with this take on it all…
“Roy Keane eviscerates Celtic spell as he reveals Man United comedown and the ‘idiots’ in the dressing room”…
Eviscerates – really? And they wonder why Celtic supporters don’t buy their paper.
