Haaland is kean to forget that tackle - YEP 25/11/13
Roy Keane is a shadow forever stalking Alfie Haaland. These days Haaland speaks of him in tired, uninterested tones.
But you doubt that the Norwegian would hold so much affection in Leeds were it not for his history with Manchester United’s ex-captain.
Haaland was back at Leeds United in December, a guest at a Championship game against Ipswich.
He attended a function in the club’s banqueting suite beforehand and gave a thousand handshakes to all and sundry; a cult hero among the masses at Elland Road.
It was never his intention to be regarded as one but two clashes with Keane in 1997 and 2001 – the first as a Leeds player and the second with Manchester City – made him welcome in Yorkshire any time. When Keane came to Elland Road as manager of Sunderland in 2006, he was greeted with chants of ‘One Alfie Haaland’ from the Kop. That feud still resonates.
Haaland has done his best to forget about the reckless tackle which began the countdown to his retirement 12 years ago; the studs-up lunge in a Manchester derby which Keane revisited in vicious style in his autobiography.
“I’m not bitter about it,” Haaland told the YEP last year, “and I don’t think about it, except when I get asked – which a lot of people do.
“As I said, what he wrote in his book was the worst thing. That can’t be good for football. It doesn’t set the right example.
“Will he regret it? Knowing his personality, I don’t think he will. Or maybe he will in time, when he’s 60 or 70.”
Haaland prefers to reminisce about 10 years in English football and three seasons with United – his best spell in the country, he says. Haaland was a hard, combative presence in midfield; by no means a playmaker but a footballer whose big heart warmed the crowd around him.
In many ways he suited the style of George Graham, the manager who signed him.
It is often forgotten that Haaland played for Norway in the 1994 World Cup and moved to Nottingham Forest in the aftermath of that tournament. A central defender in his younger years, he reinvented himself as a midfielder at Forest and was bought by George Graham for £1.6million after the Nottingham club were relegated in 1997.
Haaland made 37 appearances in his first season at Leeds and 36 in his second. The death-knell for him was the appointment of David O’Leary who became less and less convinced by Haaland’s worth, despite the midfielder heavy contribution to the club’s UEFA Cup campaign in 2000. He was sold to Manchester City later that year.
Haaland had choice words for O’Leary when the Irishman’s tenure began to go awry.
“O’Leary’s luck seems to have run out,” he said. “He can’t hide behind all those little phrases of his anymore. He has to produce the goods.”
As for Keane, the two men will never be reconciled. “I don’t expect us to speak,” Haaland said last year. “Not really. I probably wouldn’t be able to understand his accent and he might not understand mine.”
But you doubt that the Norwegian would hold so much affection in Leeds were it not for his history with Manchester United’s ex-captain.
Haaland was back at Leeds United in December, a guest at a Championship game against Ipswich.
He attended a function in the club’s banqueting suite beforehand and gave a thousand handshakes to all and sundry; a cult hero among the masses at Elland Road.
It was never his intention to be regarded as one but two clashes with Keane in 1997 and 2001 – the first as a Leeds player and the second with Manchester City – made him welcome in Yorkshire any time. When Keane came to Elland Road as manager of Sunderland in 2006, he was greeted with chants of ‘One Alfie Haaland’ from the Kop. That feud still resonates.
Haaland has done his best to forget about the reckless tackle which began the countdown to his retirement 12 years ago; the studs-up lunge in a Manchester derby which Keane revisited in vicious style in his autobiography.
“I’m not bitter about it,” Haaland told the YEP last year, “and I don’t think about it, except when I get asked – which a lot of people do.
“As I said, what he wrote in his book was the worst thing. That can’t be good for football. It doesn’t set the right example.
“Will he regret it? Knowing his personality, I don’t think he will. Or maybe he will in time, when he’s 60 or 70.”
Haaland prefers to reminisce about 10 years in English football and three seasons with United – his best spell in the country, he says. Haaland was a hard, combative presence in midfield; by no means a playmaker but a footballer whose big heart warmed the crowd around him.
In many ways he suited the style of George Graham, the manager who signed him.
It is often forgotten that Haaland played for Norway in the 1994 World Cup and moved to Nottingham Forest in the aftermath of that tournament. A central defender in his younger years, he reinvented himself as a midfielder at Forest and was bought by George Graham for £1.6million after the Nottingham club were relegated in 1997.
Haaland made 37 appearances in his first season at Leeds and 36 in his second. The death-knell for him was the appointment of David O’Leary who became less and less convinced by Haaland’s worth, despite the midfielder heavy contribution to the club’s UEFA Cup campaign in 2000. He was sold to Manchester City later that year.
Haaland had choice words for O’Leary when the Irishman’s tenure began to go awry.
“O’Leary’s luck seems to have run out,” he said. “He can’t hide behind all those little phrases of his anymore. He has to produce the goods.”
As for Keane, the two men will never be reconciled. “I don’t expect us to speak,” Haaland said last year. “Not really. I probably wouldn’t be able to understand his accent and he might not understand mine.”
