‘The Mackem Miracle - Roy Keane’s Sunderland Story’, is a half hour review of our remarkable 2006/2007 Championship winning campaign containing an extended interview with Keano, set against some great footage. It’s definitely worth a watch.
The short programme, understandably, brings back a flood of memories. For me personally, it was a well spent half an hour. I was able to piece together and solidify memories of my first ever season attending live football at the Stadium of Light and though my 7 year old memories are hazy, having that visual aid helped make those memories concrete. It was a brilliant journey back in time to a fantastic year supporting Sunderland.
As we are well aware, Keane was linked with a return last season. Had this documentary been released in January, I’m sure even more of our fan base would have clamoured for Keane’s second coming. Maybe in hindsight it’s cathartic, after a season where we finally achieved promotion back to the Championship, to get our fix of nostalgia in video form, rather than through the actual experience of Keane returning. Nevertheless, the documentary captures the energy that Keano brought to the club very well. Each scene of Roy entering a stadium, home or away, is accompanied with a chorus of Sunderland fans singing the manager’s name. Whilst the documentary stops short of hailing him as a messianic figure, the feeling of a miraculous transformation is very central to the narrative.
What is interesting in the documentary is the juxtaposition between young Keane and older Keane. The opening two minutes crafts a kind of binary between the two Keanes .The younger wears a permanent scowl, the older cracking a smile, more relaxed. At 1:50, the two Keanes are basically spliced directly together, overlapping. Current Keane is mapped directly onto his younger self in a technique reminiscent of the de-ageing in Scorcese’s The Irishman (although more convincing).The younger Keane looks uncomfortable in a suit. With a thick, loose tie, he stands on the sidelines looking like a cross between a young professional and a youth offender attending court in his Dad’s suit. The older Keane being interviewed however looks unperturbed and reflective in an understated polo. There is no latent anger in the modern Keane (or at least, considerably less) and he looks back fondly on his time with our club.
Obviously, the programme is linear, so naturally, it begins with our extremely poor start to that season. After dropping down from the Prem with a meagre 15 points, we had lost our opening four games in the league and exited the League Cup after a 2-0 defeat at Bury. Our first few home games were really poorly attended, with sub-League One crowds, such was the sense of lethargy on Wearside. We were rock bottom of the Championship and faltering. Keane states in the documentary that he had an initial reluctance about the Sunderland job, but that changed after the Bury match. He watched Niall Quinn, who he had been in contact with about the job, get interviewed after the game and he ‘thought Niall was going to have a heart attack’. Keane was away with his family at the time, but recognised that a big opportunity was presenting itself. He said: “I knew I was still hungry, still ambitious and Sunderland’s a big job. I suppose it was a case of let’s go for it and see how it goes really.”
His venture into football management was unexpected by many, but as we know, it paid dividends. The documentary shows ups and downs, but only until January essentially. After the turn of the year we went on a long unbeaten run as we made our ascent up the league table. The documentary is excellent at evoking this exciting transformation, with plenty of footage of players running over to away ends all over the country and our fans going wild. I particularly liked the angles from behind the goal. When we score, you get this immense roar from our fans and then a cut to limbs in the away end. It’s really nicely done.
Keane mentions our vocal backing, particularly away from home, and stressed that his mission at the club was to give our fans something to be proud of. In one season, he achieved that. Keane took us back to the Premier League when it looked extremely unlikely. We scored plenty of late goals and the documentary captures the exuberance of that Sunderland squad and the exciting football well. Keane gives full credit to his players, modestly distancing himself from being attributed the status of a miracle worker.
Keane appears humble and down to earth. It’s also hypnotic watching and listening to Keano. Not only is his voice objectively very nice, he has a kind of quiet intensity. He’s a very good, very captivating speaker and his narration of his time at the club is brilliant and, I would add, unmissable. Watching Keane in the past, in charge of the Lads, and listening to Keane in the present, so knowledgeable and relaxed, you can’t help but think that, though he didn’t return to the club in January, he is still someone with the potential to be a good manager. Who knows, perhaps this is some kind of extended, video CV? Regardless, if you have a spare 30 minutes, you could do worse than watching this great documentary.
