Alan Tyers: I watched the 'Saipan' movie - and Roy Keane's rage was genuinely upsetting

"It appears early on. A manky-looking cheese sandwich, seen in extreme close-up during the first few minutes of the film Saipan. Its devastating dramatic impact will only be made clear later: Chekov's Sarnie."

"The sub-standard sandwich is, of course, the offending pre-training meal offered by the clowns at the FAI to their men in their ill-fated World Cup 2002 warm-up mission to the Western Pacific island, the seemingly innocuous snack that would propel Ireland's greatest footballer to an act of righteous self-destruction that ultimately harmed everyone involved."

Saipan uses a filthy cheese sandwich as an early visual motif that foreshadows a major incident. The offending pre-training meal was supplied by the FAI during Ireland's 2002 World Cup warm-up on Saipan. The inadequate food offering provoked Ireland's foremost player into an act framed as righteous self-destruction. That act produced significant fallout, damaging squad cohesion and preparation. The episode exemplifies how mismanagement and petty humiliations from the football association escalated into consequences that harmed individuals and the team alike.

Read at Independent