The Second Half

by Roddy Doyle, Roy Keene

Overview

'ENDLESSLY ABSORBING' Mail on Sunday
'MASTERPIECE' The Times
'RUTHLESS' Daily Telegraph
'INCOMPARABLE' Sunday Mirror
'SEARINGLY HONEST' The Sun


The No.1 bestselling memoir of Roy Keane, former captain of Manchester United and Ireland


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

As part of a tiny elite of football players, Roy Keane has had a life like no other. His status as one of football's greatest stars is undisputed, but what of the challenges beyond the pitch? How did he succeed in coming to terms with life as a former Manchester United and Ireland leader and champion, reinventing himself as a manager and then a broadcaster, and cope with the psychological struggles this entailed?

THE SECOND HALF blends anecdote and reflection in Roy Keane's inimitable voice. The result is an unforgettable personal odyssey which fearlessly challenges the meaning of success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780228822
Publisher:	Orion Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	546,692
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

ROY KEANE was born in Cork in 1971, and is now a television pundit for Sky Sports and ITV after an astonishingly successful football career as captain of Manchester United and Ireland. He is also currently a co-host on Gary Neville's The Overlap: Stick to Football Podcast.

RODDY DOYLE was born in Dublin in 1958 and still lives there today. He is the author of thirteen acclaimed novels including THE COMMITMENTS, THE SNAPPER, THE GUTS, and most recently LOVE. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA and his 1991 novel THE VAN was a Booker Prize finalist.

Editorial Reviews

Roy Keane's book is a masterpiece: The Second Half gives a startling account of his colourful career and reveals the hard-man midfielder's long-hidden good points ... Keane's book, ghost-written by Roddy Doyle, is an endlessly absorbing piece of work. It may well be the finest, most incisive deconstruction of football management that the game has ever produced—Patrick Collins, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

There is much in Roy Keane's new book that is thoughtful and self-mocking, insightful and funny—George Caulkin, THE TIMES

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

Roddy Doyle's works, mostly set in a fictional Dublin suburb, often star quietly frustrated everymen, and it's this book's achievement to make you see its mighty subject in that light—Anthony Cummins, DAILY TELEGRAPH

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

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. The irrational, blistering intolerance is delicious. Keane famously detested yes-men; he created himself as the ultimate no-man. And he's still here—Dan Jones, EVENING STANDARD

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

When Keane says anything, listening is usually the best option. He's scarily extreme, dangerously provocative, oxy-acetylene forthright ... and hugely entertaining ... Self-desctruction, self-pity, self-laceration - his latest unburdening has all this and more. His book reveals more flaws and admits to more mistakes than Sir Alex Ferguson did in his last literary effort - and Keane's is much funnier—Aidan Smith, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

The book is brilliantly constructed, rattling along at breakneck speed. And it makes a change from the standard sporting autobiography in being so hard on its principal subject. This is a book full of self-deprecation ... No self-aggrandisement, rather a ruthless self-examination—Jim White, DAILY TELEGRAPH

Keane's eminent co-writer, Booker Prize-winning Irish author Roddy Doyle, does a brilliant job. His gift for comedy and swearing, together with his wonderfully transparent style, not only captures his country man's voice but also adds some much-needed light and shade to the unforgiving business of being Roy Keane. It's not a sentence I expected to write but the account of Keane's triumphant first season at Sunderland is particularly uplifting—Neil O'Sullivan, FINANCIAL TIMES

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

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

Very funny ... fantastically entertaining—SHORTLIST

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

Reflective and funny ... Doyle helps to capture Keane's humour and polish his jokes (the punchline is invariably an expletive). Despite the involvement of such an esteemed novelist and author of The Commitments, there is no doubt that the voice is Keane's ... an enjoyable read ... Keane is full of such sharp observations—Matt Dickinson, THE TIMES

Searingly honest—THE SUN

The belligerence, dry humour and short fuse still exist but it has now been accompanied by introspection, harsh self-criticism and no little humility—James Olley, EVENING STANDARD

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

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

People miss the fact that Keane is funny. Caustic, yes, clenched, he'd admit. Angry (though no longer prone to rage, his book claims) more than most. But funny. The light touch in The Second Half is not exclusively Doyle's. Yet the heavy stuff compels ... The account of Keane's Sunderland reign is riveting. The everyday trials of a first-time manager are uncovered as in no other book ... The Second Half is brutally honest—Jonathan Northcroft, THE SUNDAY TIMES

Defiant and enjoyable—THE OBSERVER

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

The thing I love about this man is there is nothing he writes down that he would not say to someone's face—Stan Collymore, THE PEOPLE

There is no denying the man is a compelling figure... Keane is a welcome maverick. Football is entertainment and the Irishman is infinitely entertaining. His aura makes his every word worth listening to... Roy Kane is a treasure of the game; love him or hate him, football would the all the poorer without his loveably, uniquely scathing presence—FOOTBALLFANCAST.COM

True star quality... a brilliant insight into Keane's mindset—IRISH EXAMINER

There are plenty of insightful and entertaining anecdotes, wry asides and sarcastic barbs. It's not unexpected. Keane is a more rounded individual than the cartoon image that's been created around him might suggest... Surprisingly, you might find yourself chuckling as you work your way across a panoramic footballing landscape—THE HERALD (Ireland)

Keane's wry wit enjoys the turbo-boost of Doyle's comic timing, absurd observations and his mastery of the dark arts of expletives—David McKechnie, IRISH TIMES

Two books in one - the tales of a truly great Premier League footballer, flawed by raging moments of visceral destructiveness... then the tortuous account of an aspiring, complex 21st-century manager... addictive road-crash reading... But the book's true revelatory value is seen during Keane's time as manager of Sunderland, which he relates with a remarkable candour and honesty. An incomparable achievement - written with Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle - illustrating the contemporary demands on a player and boss whose life has always been conducted with its own stark, peculiar, and sometimes violent, logic—Neil Masuda, SUNDAY MIRROR

From the Publisher