Newsflash: Roy Keane und Manchester United gehen auseinander.

Ist gerade bei BBC Five Live durchgegeben worden. Manchester United und Roy Keane haben im gegenseitigen Einvernehmen den Vertrag per sofort aufgelöst.

Gegen 13h20 ist eine Presseerklärung auf der ManU-Website erscheinen.

Presseerklärung:
“Manchester United has today reached agreement with Roy Keane for Roy to leave the Club with immediate effect.”
Die Vereinbarung zwischen ManU und Roy Keane erlaubt es Keane sofort einen anderen Verein zu suchen. ManU bedankt sich bei Roy Keane für seine zwölfeinhalb Jahre in Old Trafford.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said:
“Roy Keane has been a fantastic servant for Manchester United. The best midfield player in the world of his generation, he is already one of the great figures in our Club’s illustrious history. Roy has been central to the success of the Club in the last 12 ½ years and everyone at Old Trafford wishes him well in the rest of his career and beyond”

Chief Executive David Gill said:
“Roy has been a towering figure at the Club for over a decade. His dedication, talent and leadership have been qualities that have marked him out as one of the true greats. On behalf of everyone at the Club, we wish him every success in his future career.”

Roy Keane said:
“It has been a great honour and privilege for me to play for Manchester United for over 12 years. During my time at the Club I have been fortunate to play alongside some of the best players in the game and in front of the best supporters in the world. At all times I have endeavoured to do my best for the management and the team.

Whilst it is a sad day for me to leave such a great Club and Manager I believe that the time has now come for me to move on. After so many years, I will miss everyone at the Club.

I send my best wishes for the future to the management, players, staff and supporters of the Club.”

Dazu passend wärmt der GUARDIAN wieder “10 classic Roy Keane rants” auf. Binnen 9Minuten nach Bekanntgabe gab es auf der BBC-Website im 606-Forum bereits 53 Einträge im Keane-Tribute-Thread. Während ich den letzten Satz geschrieben habe, sind neun weitere Einträge dazugekommen. Güteklasse: “Bye bye scumo”, “He is a thug”, “kiss my big fat derriere”, “Overatted psycho, not a bad player though”, “Go break a leg”, “I fart in his general direction.”, “Ta Ta Wa nker”.

Der Mann polarisiert.

Erwartet werden jetzt viele Spekulationen das Keane möglicherweise zum Trainer auf Abruf wird. Der Nationaltrainerjob in Irland ist frei (bislang war Terry Venables Favorit) und bei Celtic könnte er der Mann nach Strahan werden.