It's been one big week for the two most significant Irishmen in English football. Their fates could hardly have offered a greater contrast. Both have been vocal, it's just that Roy Keane sounded like a demolition man, David O'Leary like an architect.
It is an easy line to spout - construction and deconstruction - but in the case of Leeds United and Manchester United over the past few days the theme has become a legitimate reference point for a debate. O'Leary seems to be building something special at Elland Road; Keane appears to be the foreman overseeing the tearing down of an edifice deemed daunting no more at Old Trafford.
On Wednesday night in Munich, in the aftermath of Manchester United's elimination from the European Cup, Alex Ferguson, Keane's gaffer, did not want to become involved in any discussion regarding the future of those who have made the Old Trafford team such a formidable institution. In fact, Ferguson nearly bit the heads off reporters who asked the questions on the topic.
However, in another part of a huge amphitheatre of a stadium, Ferguson's captain and his presence on the pitch, Keane, was, in old gangland parlance, singing like a canary. It will not have been music to the ears of his team-mates. "Just not good enough," was the bottom line in Keane's chorus of disapproval. It was not new, in the sense that Keane had set the agenda a week earlier when suggesting that "heads may roll" were United not to overcome Bayern Munich, but there was a force and a harsh honesty about his words that brought home the scale of United's exit and the size of the job now if they are to crown Ferguson's final year with a second European Cup.
"Maybe that's the end of this team," Keane said. It was a gloomy recognition of United's failings, but a realistic one. Keane added "I'm not sure" to that statement, yet that felt like a kind afterthought. You sense that Keane is sure. You sense that he speaks for his manger and you sense that both men have carried out a frank internal audit of United's present capabilities and know the team is either stalled, or worse, regressing. The implication is there was more than one imposter in the team photograph.
The mention of Luis Figo's name was an interesting contribution from Ferguson on Wednesday. It sounded like it was aimed directly at a target audience of about half-a-dozen. They all sit in the Old Trafford boardroom. That the world's most expensive player is not at the world's richest club is an anomaly Ferguson will no doubt point out over the Manchester United own-brand whiskey next time he sets foot in there. United's supposed financial stature requires a muscular flexing in the market will be Ferguson's message.
True, Ruud van Nistelrooy will probably arrive in the summer for a fee in the region of £15 million sterling. But United need a creative midfielder to assist Keane as well: Patrick Vieira was whispered by one well-informed former United player in Munich, though Ferguson has been impressed by Keiron Dyer and is likely to get him for £13 million. And, following United's erratic defensive play, new faces there will be called for. Parma's Lilian Thuram always gets a mention.
Vieira, Dyer, Thuram, it is that calibre of player Ferguson must recruit if United are, in Keane's words, to "move on". Money - and £20 million was wiped of United's paper valuation yesterday morning - thus becomes the main issue. United have plenty of it - and may generate £20 million from the sale of David Beckham - but, partly through a principled preference of growing your own, and partly because Ferguson has resisted spending for the sake of it, believing his own players to be the best, there has been no outlay of the type seen regularly on the Continent, or closer to home at Liverpool.
And Leeds, of course. Perhaps O'Leary's finest achievement to date is that he has not kept stressing the need for patience. He has not hidden behind the "Oh, it takes time to build a club" argument. He has gone out and bought boldly. Olivier Dacourt, Mark Viduka, Robbie Keane and Rio Ferdinand - £44 million without wages - have given Leeds an immediate European persona. Throw in the home-grown, Ian Harte, Gary Kelly, Alan Smith and Paul Robinson; O'Leary has done something Ferguson did when he bought Jaap Stam, Jesper Blomqvist and Dwight Yorke in one swoop. He has built on solid foundations and there are sure to be further additions in the summer. Ferguson has been less active, and it is showing.
So suddenly Leeds are the team in England people want to watch. O'Leary has displayed his managerial talent. Ferguson must re-state his. And Manchester United must deliver a declaration of intent by buying big. Otherwise there will be more disenchanted utterances from Roy Keane.
