He united and divided us like no other

Mary Hannigan on how, unpredictable to the end, Roy Keane ended a brilliant career

The word was doing the rounds on Sunday that Roy Keane would announce he was extending his career by one more season, prompting the headline "Keane Plays On" to appear in one newspaper yesterday.

Unpredictable to the end, then, the 34-year-old has announced his retirement from football following advice from his surgeon on his long-standing hip injury.

Back in March he hinted his first season for Celtic would be his last after the surgeon had urged him to look at "the bigger picture", namely his long-term health, and while the temptation to play another season might have been strong, not least because Keane would have experienced Champions League football again, he has, in the end, heeded that advice.

And so concludes an extraordinary career, as brilliant as it was controversial, almost 16 years after Brian Clough gave him his debut as a 19-year-old for Nottingham Forest at Anfield. For a teenager who had always been told he was too small (and not good enough) to make it in the professional game, and whose only previous offer of a trial came from Brighton (withdrawn after he was packed and ready to go), that game had a dream-like quality.

"I remember Steve McMahon was playing. This always sticks in my mind: they were on the attack and I was running back defending and he's running next to me. I looked at him and he looked at me and I remember thinking 'is this really happening?'," he recalled.

Sixteen years on and the younger Celtic players were admitting to much the same sense of wonder at the sight of Keane playing alongside them, completing his journey from newcomer desperate for a chance, to the player Alex Ferguson described as "the best I have ever worked with".

Despite a richly successful career and the widely-held view he was one of the finest midfielders of his or any other generation, events four years ago, of course, largely shaped Keane's relationship with Ireland.

Even before Saipan he was seemingly loved and loathed in equal measure, his detractors finding his infamous tackle on Alf Inge Haaland especially unpardonable, but that calamitous falling out with Mick McCarthy divided opinion like never before. And still does.

His exit from Old Trafford was no less stunning, his insistence on speaking his mind, when he criticised his under-performing team-mates on the club's own television channel, proving too much for his manager. If Keane had had the ability to keep his counsel life really would have been a whole lot more tranquil, but he never craved tranquillity, just success.

He took his time to settle at United, but following the retirement of Bryan Robson and the departure of Paul Ince he made the midfield his own, his leadership of the team inspiring, his drive and determination unrivalled, he was peerless, and simply immense.

"I never played with anyone better," said Denis Irwin yesterday. "He knew exactly what was going to happen on the field - before it happened."

It was that quality, one he shared with Paul McGrath, that led to one of the most common sights at Old Trafford during his 12 years there, Keane, his defence at sea, anticipating trouble and getting back just in time to put in the crucial tackle. At which point his name would ring out around the stadium. They knew a saviour when they saw one.

Whether his qualities as a player can help him build a successful managerial career remains to be seen, but his journey will make compelling viewing. The oft heard observation that he's too volatile and demanding to work with bothersome chairmen or players of lesser ability underestimates his shrewdness and intelligence.

So, for some he is the greatest sportsman this country has ever produced, for others his transgressions are inexcusable. Either way, he fascinated us like no other.