The Second Half - Softcover

Doyle, Roddy; Keene, Roy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780228821 ISBN 13: 9781780228822

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016

Synopsis

No. 1 bestselling memoir of Roy Keane, former captain of Manchester United and Ireland - co-written with Man Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle. Now updated with a new chapter, including Roy leaving Aston Villa and the Republic of Ireland's qualification for Euro 2016.

In a stunning collaboration with Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle, Roy Keane gives a brutally honest account of his last days as a player, the highs and lows of his managerial career, and his life as an outspoken ITV pundit.

'Roy Keane's book is a masterpiece . . . It may well be the finest, most incisive deconstruction of football management that the game has ever produced' Mail on Sunday

'A genuine pleasure . . . His thoughts on his players are humane, interesting, candid and never less than believable' The Times

'The best things are the small things: regretting joining Ipswich when he discovered the training kit was blue; refusing to sign Robbie Savage because his answerphone message was rubbish; being appalled that his side had listened to an Abba song before playing football' Evening Standard

'The book is brilliantly constructed, rattling along at breakneck speed . . . full of self-deprecation . . . a ruthless self-examination' Daily Telegraph

About this title

About the Author:

Roy Keane is a television pundit for ITV after an astonishingly successful football career as captain of Manchester United and Ireland. He is currently the assistant manager of the international Ireland team. Roddy Doyle is one of Ireland's greatest and most successful literary authors. He won the Man Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Review:

The rhythm of it compels attention - it's like someone talking directly to you in a pub ... It's a thoughtful book, for a footballer. But while it's taken a novelist to write his life, it may take a psychoanalyst to understand it―Anthony Quinn, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

A book that offers great insight into the modern manager's job ... The book does not attempt to deflect the mistakes Keane made but it adds a dimension to the man. Especially in his reflections on small details of behaviour, and there are scores of them ... Keane must hope that the decision-makers in football take the trouble to read the book itself―Sam Wallace, i NEWSPAPER

A candid and at times moving account of Keane coming to terms with the end of his playing career. It is at its most engaging when Keane steps out of character: describing shedding tears upon leaving Old Trafford and his twilight season at Celtic when his broken body failed him. Star ghost writer Roddy Doyle captures Keane's short, sharp and abrupt rhythm, like the cracks of a snare drum―Paul Rees, SUNDAY EXPRESS

A genuine pleasure; it is a masterpiece of the genre and one that paints, in an entirely unintentional way, an extremely flattering portrait of the man ... Keane is not afraid to laugh at himself by telling stories against himself ... His thoughts on his players are humane, interesting, candid and never less than believable ... Keane's story is of a man, too, one who has had to look at football and life anew as a manager, and it is this added perspective that gives richness and humanity to the tale―Mike Atherton, THE TIMES

Keane's book - ghosted by Roddy Doyle - is brutal, amusing and self-deprecating, often at the same time―Des Kelly, EVENING STANDARD

Keane pulls no punches in what he says. I admire him. He's incredibly passionate and doesn't suffer fools. He deserves credit for that. I was never on the end of one of his tackles but I always enjoyed watching him and I like how he speaks his mind. We've lost a little bit of that personality in the game - the likes of Keane and his bust-ups―Peter Crouch, LOADED

It is the dearth of integrity that makes Pietersen such a peevish, trifling character, and the surfeit that makes Keane so entrancingly epic ... the personification of honest to a fault ... he is as close as sport can offer to an Old Testament prophet. Heroically unconcerned with being loved, almost insanely devoted to telling what he regards as the plain truth, he may not always be engaging. But ... he stands out as utterly and irreducibly true to himself―Matthew Norman, THE INDEPENDENT

If you write a book, you have got to be true to yourself. It's no good just making something up. You have got to show what is in your heart, and what is in your head, and that is what Roy has done―Terry Venables, THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

I've just got my copy of The Second Half and although I'm only a couple of chapters into it, it has not disappointed. People have their own opinions of Roy and some would be fearful of him, given how outspoken he can be. I have always judged people how I find them and I can honestly say I have never found a fault in him ... He had a fabulous career and I know I'm going to enjoy reading about it―Jamie Carragher, DAILY MAIL

I'm surprised how much Roy Keane's second autobiography made me laugh ... More importantly the book told me that Keane should be the next Manchester United manager. The more I read what he had to say, and his reflections on his two jobs as boss, the more I realised how perfect he would be at Old Trafford―Adrian Durham, MAIL ONLINE

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1780228821
• ISBN 13: 9781780228822
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320