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KEANE by name, and manically keen by nature, Manchester United's captain struck Alfie Haaland with a tackle so vindictive that it would have aroused the interest of the constabulary had it been made in an ale-speckled pub that Saturday night.
"Gotcha!" is what Keane apparently said to his old enemy as Haaland clutched his leg to make sure all the components of a limb were still there. Blackjack dealers have delivered cards less swiftly than David Elleray did in reaching for red. It is a measure of Keane's capacity for belligerence that no Manchester City player attempted to exact retribution with a fist or even a handbag.
Manchester derbies were never about civic bonding (up in the stands they hose the bile off the seats). But the assault which prompted Elleray to show Keane the eighth red card of his career was less a reflection of tribal animosity than United's sudden awareness that empires rise and fall. The club's ejection from Europe has hurt Keane so deeply that he is behaving as if bailiffs are about to take his house.
Personal loathing was also at work, for it was an airborne strike by Irishman on Norwegian four years ago that put Keane out of the game for a year with cruciate knee ligament damage (Haaland was then playing for Leeds). With his chief...