Roy Returns: Chefs prepare humble pie

14th Apr 2004

Humble Pie
Danny Elbow

Inspired by the Patrick St. Riots of 2002 Roy Keane is back. From a football point of view its no surprise he has agreed to come back to play for Ireland soon after Manchester United's 1-0 defeat of Arsenal in the English Premiership. Roy now has the knowledge to break a team that contains Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera and Robert Pires the backbone of the 1998 World Cup winning French national side. The carrot laid in front of him is now even juicier as the Republic of Ireland meet France in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers.

While the efforts of some of Dublin's better players like Damien Duff and Robbie Keane have to be acknowledged their talents in no way provide the marshalling a Cork man like Keane could provide to turn a collection of half-decent and mediocre players into a highly dynamic and disciplined footballing unit.

Although he might be Cork's best known sportsman - his name is synonymous with soccer all over the world - he is NOT the best Cork sportsman ever'