Graham Kelly: Keane, the grit in the prawn sandwich, is defined by his contrariness

"Time, energy and imagination I should have spent on lessons and homework had instead been invested in endless hours of football. This is not an option I recommend. Football isn't on the school curriculum for a very good reason: very few can make a living from the professional game. Today kids are smarter, or should be. An education and a career in football are not mutually exclusive options."

This textbook vocational advice could have been handpicked from a Football Association publication, but, surprisingly, it comes from the notorious autobiography of Roy Keane, the Manchester United and recently deposed Republic of Ireland captain. Nothing, in truth, defines Keane more than his contrariness, it seems.

I took the decision to charge Keane with bringing the game into disrepute after he had stamped on Gareth Southgate in the second half of the FA Cup semi-final replay at Villa Park in1995. From my perspective, as FA chief executive, the horrible foul was completely out of sync with the mood of the moment, because a Crystal Palace fan had died after an incident outside a pub following the first match.

I felt the punishment needed to be more than the standard three matches. Keane gives his side of the story in his book. United were under pressure, not long after the Eric Cantona kung-fu controversy. Before kick-off, manager Alex Ferguson warned the players not to be sucked in by Palace's aggression. In a first half which exhibited the peculiar mix of fear, desire and aggression that can be English football, Darren Pitcher whacked Keane's ankle and he needed seven stitches at half-time. When Southgate innocently made contact with his raw ankle bone, Keane forgot Ferguson's strictures, retaliated in pain and anger and was sent off.

The subsequent disciplinary commission fined him £5,000. There was never any question of him being suspended for the Cup final, although he did take the opportunity afforded by the three-match ban to have a hernia operation.

This business of "avoiding" suspensions by having operations which caused such a fuss last week is virtually impossible to legislate against, unless, in Keane's case, the FA feels there is merit in a hefty fine, which never seems to mean very much to today's wealthy stars, and a split suspension, with part depending upon improved behaviour in future.

Sending Keane for his operation last week was simply Ferguson playing cat and mouse and doing his job for United, as was his alleged withholding of his England players.

I loathe the phrase "bringing the game into disrepute" being attached to the written word. Normally, it should be reserved for the most heinous of foul acts.

However, there is no doubt that Keane has handed a case to the FA on a silver platter, with by his admission that, on Bryan Robson's advice, he bided his time before wreaking his revenge on Alf Inge Haaland. Sadly, a world-class player has ensured, by his own testimony, that he will be bracketed in folklore with much lesser players like Vinnie Jones, who trod the disciplinary carpet after glorifying in misdeeds on video.

Some have contended that, as in 1995, the FA should have hit Keane with an additional charge immediately after his lunge at Haaland, but the United captain would have pleaded a mistimed tackle. How could the revenge motive have been established without the player's own confession?

Much of Keane's original notoriety stemmed from his determination to demonstrate that, despite having made it in football, he was still one of the lads at heart, capable of enjoying himself with his old mates. Of course, when you are the focus of attention, for reasons that may be beyond your control in city centres, there are plenty of people who delight in taking the local big shot down a peg. Why did this penny take so long to drop?

If, as Keane maintains, he is fully aware of the responsibility of being a Manchester United player, heir to the tradition of Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and Johnny Carey, why does he so often jeopardise the club's best interests?

Why does he, a late entrant to the professional ranks after countless rejections, threaten to foreshorten his precious career? How can he summon the remorse to consider retirement after being wound up by Alan Shearer, yet elbow Jason McAteer a year later?

Can the best player Ferguson has ever had simply explain it all by reference to the white-hot furnace that is football today? No doubt about it, he is the grit in the prawn sandwich. He relishes the tightest of games that represent men at work in what he calls the "savage, cruel and relentlessly punishing" arena of top-class football.

Funnily enough, I believe Keane will move into coaching in a few years. Now that really will be interesting.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com