roy keane signing not the disaster the press would have us believe

He has appeared on television openly criticising his team mates, has been out of the game for lengthy spells with injury and some people say he isn't the player he once was. But that's enough about Barry Ferguson, let's concentrate on Roy Keane.

From the day that Keane parted company with Manchester United there were rumours that his next place of employment would be Celtic Park. As soon as it became clear that these rumours had crystalised into fact we settled down to digest the news that Celtic had added to the squad a player of genuine stature.

But this is Celtic we're talking about, and it became very clear, very quickly, that the media weren't about to let this story break without putting some decidedly negative spin on out.

The attack had several prongs to it. Firstly, a huge question was raised as to whether Keane was signed by Gordon Strachan or by Dermot Desmond and his fellow board members. After all, it would be scandalous if a club's director started interfering in the playing side of things and would serve to seriously undermine a manager's credibility, even if his team was top of the table.

This was addressed by both Peter Lawwell and Gordon Strachan at the press conference to introduce Keane. Lawwell, in fact, opened the meeting by announcing that, 'The board and management are absolutely delighted that Roy is joining Celtic.'

Clear enough, you might think, yet one obdurate hack addressed a question to Strachan a short while later asking if he had really wanted Keane or if he was pushed into the signing by his superiors at the club. Strachan's reaction was laudable: 'Are you calling Peter a liar? Is that what you're saying? Does Peter tell lies?'

Memo to the Laptop Loyal: If you're looking for a story about a chairman interfering in team affairs see Murray, David and Ball, Michael (Sunday Herald, November 6th 2005).

Another outright lie that was peddled in the wake of the Keane transfer was that Dermot Desmond had to intervene financially so that the deal would go through without breaking the club's wage structure.

Once again the clear suggestion was that the signing of Keane was going to cause serious disruption in the dressing-room, with players demanding higher salaries and, no doubt, threatening to fill massive column inches with stories about players set to move elsewhere. Wouldn't it be a sign of a club in serious financial difficulties if one of the directors had to put his hands in his pockets in order to fund moves in the transfer market?

Compare and contrast with the continual output of puff for David Murray that suggests he is tirelessly emptying his own personal piggy bank to the tune of squillions of bucks so that the Death Star can thrill to the likes of Federico Nieto, Steven Thompson and Franny Jeffers.

It was made abundantly clear in simple language that neither the club's wage structure had been adjusted nor that Dermot Desmond had been personally involved in a financial capacity. Not only should we be reassured that there is a certain amount of prudence (copyright G. Brown) behind the running of the club, but that Roy Keane has demonstrated an extraordinary amount of faith in what he's doing by taking a severe dunt in his pay packet in order to play for the Hoops.

Memo to the LL: For stories about players' willingness to put club before pay packet see Lovenkrands, Peter.

As if they needed an excuse to ship out one of better players, the arrival of Keane was seized on as the perfect opportunity to start flying more kites about the future of Stilian Petrov (who still has a year and a half left on his contract). Personally, the logic behind why a good player coming through the entrance should provoke the departure of another one escapes me. I always thought the idea was to play with colleagues of the highest possible calibre. But Lawwell once again had to reiterate that Celtic are in negotiations to keep Petrov and that the signing of Keane will have no bearing whatsoever on this.

The bellicose nature of Lawwell and Strachan's respective performances - together with Dermot Desmond's statement wherein he named and shamed the guilty parties who cynically twisted his interview with the Celtic Supporters Association - are hopefully indicative of a new attitude towards the persistent misrepresentation of Celtic's affairs in the media.

For once, it seems, the club is on the front foot and will not passively stand aside and let the hacks gat away with writing whatever they like without being held accountable for it.

The treatment of Keane in the papers has been equally reprehensible. Far from celebrating the fact that the dismal SPL has an injection of class the like of which we haven't seen for ages, certain hacks have chosen to focus on isolated incidents from Keane's career and turn him into a stereotypical maverick, a liability who will ruin harmony in the dressing room and cause his manager no end of grief.

His best years are behind him, we're told, although that didn't stop Real Madrid showing an interest nor David Beckham eulogising about his former team mate and what qualities he can bring to any side.

He has 'baggage', we're told - the irony of which couldn't have been lost on anyone reading their lavish tributes to the late George Best - although not too many of them appear to have considered that in Keane's disagreements with the Irish FA and with Alex Ferguson the player might have actually been in the right.

He won't be able to fit into Gordon Strachan's team, we're told, either in our cast iron defence or our gritty midfield.

Sorry, gentlemen of the press, but I think your negative reaction betrays your real feelings on this one.

Whether he becomes the success we'd all like him to be remains to be seen. But we've signed a true winner in Roy Keane and he has already generated the kind of headlines all over the world that no amount of Murray style propaganda can buy.

'I gave every club I spoke to a chance,' he said at his press conference, 'But this is the club for me. This is where I belong... I'm not here to be popular, I'm here to win... I can't wait to get started.'

Welcome to the Family, Roy, and good luck with your Celtic career.

MARMADUKE BAGLEHOLE