Roy Keane would be in my 'Best Premier League XI'. He makes it into central midfield, ahead of the tremendous Patrick Vieira, for his leadership qualities and his footballing abilities. (Obviously, in terms of all-time players I've watched, Graeme Souness is a superior all-round midfielder, but that's another column).
There's no doubt that Keane has a great knowledge of the game.
Yet increasingly he's becoming a parody of himself.
Pull string and get controversial opinion.
Not just controversial, but contrary too.
Roy Keane has become Johnny Opposite.
Any sane, sensible person would say that an assistant referee flinging his elbow up into the chin of a player is an extraordinary event, something to be criticised.
Not Roy Opposite though.
You could almost hear the cogs whirring as he moved from his standard setting of 'Brush it off, I'm a hardman' Mode into 'How can I be controversial, contrary?' – so he went for victim-blaming.
It was Andy Roberton's fault, apparently, that Constantine Hatzidakis elbowed the Liverpool left-back on his chin.
Keane claimed that Robertson had instigated the incident.
As the great newspaper editor CP Snow famously wrote, 'Comment is free but facts are sacred'.
I'd be entitled to put this much more strongly, but Keane greatly exaggerated, saying about Robertson 'He grabbed the linesman first'.
So many have repeated a twisted version of what actually happened.
Of course Robertson is one of those extremely annoying, argumentative players.
Yet the facts are that Robertson was walking towards Hatzidakis, talking – not shouting - and actually stopped walking. He did not 'grab' the assistant referee.
The footage is very unclear, but at most Robertson put a hand – not hands – on the arm of Hatzidakis. Inappropriate, of course, but not heinous. After all, many claimed that Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes did nothing wrong when he pushed an assistant referee aside.
On Sunday, the assistant referee arrogantly ignored Robertson, then lifted his elbow aggressively, seeming to make contact with the player's chin, although that is not certain.
Even if Robertson had 'grabbed' Hatzidakis, it would still not have justified the latter launching his elbow up towards the Scotsman's chin like a bouncer in a bar brawl.
This isn't so much about the Liverpool-Manchester United rivalry as about Keane twerking for clicks and likes.
I genuinely think Keane would have spouted the same bilge if Hatzidakis had elbowed a Man Utd player.
Criticising a player for arguing with match officials? Keane, so often pictured screaming spittle into a referee's face, really has gone Through the Looking Glass there.
Calling an annoying, mouthy defender "a big baby" as he sits alongside Gary Neville, with whom he played the bulk of his club career, is beyond satire.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Roy Maurice Keane.
When Neville is the voice of reason in a discussion about Liverpool FC you know that others have lost the run of themselves.
Punditry used to be about credibility.
What I've seen of Keane recently is merely a comedy act. He gets intoxicated by people actually finding him funny, after decades of being a grump.
Smirking along with his fellow Cackle Brother Micah Richards. Before kick-off on Sunday, incidentally, that Manchester City pom-pom-wielder, trotted out the cliched trope that Liverpool get a lot of penalties at Anfield.
True, they did get a penalty on Sunday, but that was an award so obvious that even Paul Tierney was obliged to give it, as an Arsenal defender kicked the back of Diogo Jota's legs.
It also happened to be Liverpool's first penalty at home for more than a year.
Proper research, an unbiased approach, would have told Richards that. But, hey, the big man laughs a lot, so it's all good. Let's talk rubbish instead. Clicks and giggles.
Perhaps they could have discussed Arsenal's play-acting and deliberate time-wasting in that first half; unusual behaviour from the impressive league leaders. Nothing to see there...
Sky Sports can do excellent analysis, especially the combination of Neville and Jamie Carragher, but what I've seen on recent so-called Super Sundays wouldn't make me rush to watch that coverage.
Sky Sports are heading into soundbite/ clickbait territory. That's fact, not opinion. They are planning to replace a number of their soccer reporters with 'content providers'.
Keane is well on his way to being one of those.
The Corkman embarrassed himself ahead of the recent Liverpool-Manchester United game at Anfield by giggling like a primary schoolkid when Souness declared his confidence that the Reds would win the match.
It would have been fair enough to laugh if Souness had said that Liverpool would win handsomely, say 7-0.
Souness was proven correct though. And then some. Liverpool humiliated their arch-rivals. 7-0.
But still. Comedy Roy had his viral video of him and Gary Neville tittering at Souey.
Before that, when Cristiano Ronaldo was acting like, yes, "a big baby" at Manchester United, behaving utterly unprofessionally, flouncing around, you'd have expected Keane to call him out for letting the club down. Especially as Keane ended his own Old Trafford career by criticising team-mates for falling short of his high standards of professionalism.
But no. Roy Opposite defended the diva, made the ridiculous claims that Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag should make special dispensation for a player who only wanted to run the length of himself when the ball was at his feet in the opposition penalty area.
Further evidence of why Keane largely failed as a manager.
On Match of the Day 2 on Sunday night, Ian Wright's analysis of the opening goal was measured. Arsenal got lucky when the ball deflected off Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk, but then Gabriel Martinelli demonstrated great feet to tee up a precise finish, with defenders scared to tackle in the penalty area.
The Reds could have done better for the second Arsenal goal, but it came from a great pass, a superb cross, and a fine header.
Clickbait Keano's 'analysis'? Liverpool had defended like 'a pub team'. Yawn.
Wright was right, Keane was talking tripe, but sadly the latter's comments will get more attention.
Of course there's room for humour, even banter, but pundits should also be professional.
The impression Keane gave was that some lax defending by Liverpool was a far worse crime than an assistant referee assaulting a player. Look up 'assault' and tell me I'm wrong.
Keane could have had a laugh, acknowledge that most opposition fans and players would be delighted to see the loudmouth 'Robbo' getting chinned – but also point out that it should not have happened.
Keane used to pride himself on his authenticity. Now, though, I'm far from convinced he actually believes what he says.
He's become what he would surely have once despised, a bizarre combination of #Bantz and contrived 'anti-wokery', the human equivalent of the Daily Telegraph on TikTok.
