We can exclusively reveal that whilst Alex Ferguson was right to say that the lawyers had looked at the Roy Keane book it appears that it was the publisher’s lawyers and not United’s who had given it the once over.
Understandably after the Jaap Stam affair United were keen to see Keane’s book prior to publication but due to the publisher's failure to produce the book when requested, neither the club nor their lawyers were able to read it until after the serialisation had started.
Serial ghost-writer, Roy Collins, suggested in the Guardian earlier in the week that the blame for the furore lay at Eamon Dunphy’s door, are we expected to believe that it is purely a coincidence that a request from United to see the manuscript prior to publication was overlooked? Or did the publisher deliberately delay sending the manuscript out?