Treated like the Irish messiah whenever he crosses the water, Keane seems to have inspired a generation of teenagers to ditch the hurling sticks in favour of plying their trade in the middle of the park.



It's easy to understand why.

Love him or hate him, Keane was undeniably one of the game's true characters and his sheer presence in the middle of the park was enough to leave the opposition quivering in the changing rooms.

Even before Keane left his spiritual home of Old Trafford, a lengthy line of midfielders have been hailed as the 'new Roy Keane' before ultimately coming nowhere near to the impossible task of emulating the Cork legend.

Liam Miller, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson were all put into the thankless category of Keane mark two.

Hartlepool United's Alan Power is under no such pressure but the tough-tackling summer signing admits he has tried to model his game on the
now Sunderland manager.

Power said: "I was a Man United fan as a lad and Roy Keane was definitely one of my idols.

"I'd love to play for him one day and he is close by as well – I might give him a knock on his door!

"I've been studying his play for the last couple of years and it's something that has been in me ever since I've come up and I just hope to show everybody in the league some of my tackling."

Before arriving at Nottingham Forest as an apprentice, Power plyed his trade for Crumlin United – the same club which produced record Irish goalscorer Robbie Keane.

Power wants to follow Keane onto the international stage after a getting taste of it when he was called up to the Ireland U21 squad last October.

"I've played internationally since Under-15s and I was playing Under-21s last year so I will be pushing for that as well as hoping to start in the league," said the 20-year-old.

"Crumlin have come on leaps and bounds now. It's really grown back at home compared to the likes of Shelbourne who are one of the bigger teams."