The television viewing public of Ireland were shown just how great a bloke Shane Long is on Tuesday night when Lucy Kennedy was invited for a tour of his house on 'Living With Lucy' on TV3.
We learned a lot about Long's house, and we heard all about how much he misses a bit of GAA back home, but what was also very interesting was his description of Roy Keane.
A lot of people have had a lot of things to say about Roy Keane in recent times, but few have offered as good a description as Shane Long. Having been in and around Irish squads for a number of years, Long would have actually gotten to know Roy and thus served up this fantastic quote when asked whether or not Roy Keane is grumpy:
No, do you know what, around the floor here with the lads he sits in and he's a great laugh, he's very sharp, quick with his banter you know? Funny, very funny.
He's probably the best player that's ever come out of Ireland, he's played at the biggest club at their best time, so he's obviously used to the best of the best and he wants to bring Ireland to that standard to compete, and he has brought an element of that with him. Tempo in training is a lot higher now and he wouldn't be afraid to stop it and pull out the people who aren't pulling their weight. He keeps everyone on their toes.
I think he just kind of... Has an angry head on him the whole time, but he's not actually grumpy, so people think he's grumpy.
That's magnificent from Long.
He has an angry head on him the whole time, but he's actually a good laugh. We've seen from his interactions with the media over the course of the Euros that he does love a bit of a laugh, but that's just as long as they don't ask stupid questions.
