ROY KEANE RETIREMENT/The Ferguson Factor: Mary Hannigan on the reluctance at Old Trafford to release players for duty with 'lesser' nations
"Giggs- Hamstring or Heartstring?," read the banner at Wales' friendly against Finland in Cardiff back in March 2000. The banner was removed by a stadium official and its owner, bizarrely enough, was threatened with expulsion from the ground, but not before he'd made his point.
That night Giggs was making his first ever appearance for Wales in a friendly, nine years after making his debut for his country. In that time he'd missed 18 friendlies, with Alex Ferguson announcing in the build-up to most of them that Giggs had felt "a twinge in his hamstring". A twinge that, invariably, he felt no longer on the eve of Manchester United's next game.
It became a running joke among Welsh supporters, but a bitter one at that. The finest player of their generation has won just 39 caps in an international career that began in 1991. Little wonder, then, that many Welsh supporters hold Giggs responsible for these sporadic appearances - most, though, point the finger at Ferguson.
Remember, Giggs was captain of the England schoolboys' team before switching his allegiances to the country of his birth. England to Wales? Considering Wales' standing at the time in international football it was hardly the move of a mercenary.
There was a touch of the "heartstrings" about it. Since then? Ferguson has seen to it that the hamstring has overuled the heart, as our Cardiff banner-man suggested.
A fortnight ago Dwight Yorke spoke, resentfully, of Ferguson's insistence, after his move to Manchester United from Aston Villa, that he concentrate on his club career and forget about "swanning" back and forward to Trinidad and Tobago to play for his country, where he's up there with Brian Lara in the idol stakes.
It smacked, a little, of Burnley manager Stan Ternent's comment, after his player Ian Cox returned late from international duty with Trinidad: "We have to pay his wages and insurance to play for some tin-pot outfit - it's a joke."
Wales? Trinidad? And the Republic of Ireland? "Tin-pot outfits", in the eyes of Ferguson? After Tuesday's news it is difficult not to draw that conclusion. Keane, who, presumably, knows better than anyone how many games a season his body is capable of withstanding, had told Brian Kerr he would play for him. Ferguson intervened. That was that.
Even the most fervent of Keane devotees, therefore, are entitled to ask: would an extra three or four games a year really have made such a difference to his physical well-being? Will Manchester United ask him to play in three or four pre-season PR games in the Far East next summer? Probably. And will that be against their club surgeon's "medical advice"? They probably won't ask.
"Can you imagine the furore in England if David Beckham said he was going to retire from international football because Alex advised him to," asked one contributor to BBC Online's debate yesterday on Keane's retirement.
True, Sven-Goran Eriksson has had his own problems with Ferguson's stance on the club v country issue. Last season, for example, Eriksson received a phone call from Old Trafford informing him that Paul Scholes was injured and would not be available for selection for the friendly against Portugal. Twenty-four hours later the England manager turned up at United's game against Middlesbrough and was a touch taken aback to see Scholes start.
So, Ferguson's not shy about upsetting the manager of England either, but would he go so far as to encourage one of his players to prematurely end their English international careers, when they'd signalled their desire to play on, as Keane had done to Kerr? Could MUFC plc's PR machine withstand the backlash in England? No. It wouldn't even take the risk.
In the international footballing scheme of things Wales, Trinidad and Ireland just aren't England, France, Argentina or Holland.
Yes, Fabien Barthez and Mikael Silvestre have missed friendlies for France, as has Juan Sebastian Veron for Argentina and Ruud van Nistelrooy for Holland, but when the games matter they're there, and there's not a mutter from Ferguson. Van Nistelrooy has had his injuries this season but there was no attempt on Ferguson's part to withdraw him from Holland's friendly against Argentina last night - all he asked was that his player appear for no longer than 45 minutes. It's up to Holland, though, and Ferguson knows that.
Yes, United pay Keane's wages, so, yes, they're entitled to protect their investment. The justifiable bitterness, though, on this issue stems from the fact that different standards are applied to different nations. Beckham, Veron, van Nistelrooy or Barthez would never have been presented with the same choice as Keane, evidently, was by Ferguson.
What transpired was, indisputably, an insult to Ireland, a country that has contributed so much to the history of Manchester United. Ireland, then, deserved a whole lot more from the club, as did Keane. As did Brian Kerr. The pity is that Keane didn't have it in him to stick by his original promise to Kerr.
