After a 151-day spell at Aston Villa, what’s the next chapter in the intruiging Corkman’s life?
And just like that, he was gone. In a similar fashion to his exit from Manchester United and Sunderland, Roy Keane’s departure this morning from one of his current jobs was brutally swift and out of the blue.
In the statement issued by Keane this morning, he declared that he felt he could no longer combine the role of assistant to Paul Lambert at Villa with assistant to Martin O’Neill for Ireland and he has decided to focus on his work with the FAI.
Taking this at face value, it is an honourable decision, and one that should benefit Ireland, even if we don’t have a game that matters for almost four months.
But what does this mean for his career in the game? The Aston Villa job was seen as a foothold back into day-to-day coaching, ‘getting out on the grass’ to use the phrase that pops up more than once in his recent book.
If he genuinely wants to become a full-time club manager again, then this latest departure won’t help his cause. It has once again shown Keane’s unpredictability as he had always vowed that he could manage both roles and that he didn’t see a conflict. Now, heading into a spell where he has no Ireland games to worry about for the foreseeable future, he has walked away from his real day job.
Of course, speculation has already started that he could be about to take a managerial role. Nottingham Forest’s patchy form has seen Stuart Pearce being touted for the chop while his former suitors at Celtic may try to get him in as Ronny Delia continues to find himself unpopular with many, despite being top of the SPL table.
He really can’t take on a role with another club now, though, without leaving the Ireland assistant job behind. That would, of course, create its own storm of opprobrium but that has never been something that scared the former Manchester United man.
So, we either face another messy divorce with the FAI if Keane does get the urge to get ‘back on the grass’ again or he settles in to his role with Ireland and becomes a fully committed part of Martin O’Neill’s bid to get Ireland to Euro 2016.
We wouldn’t go so far as to say that Keane is ‘damaged goods’ but at 43 his career path has certainly veered far from the bright manager who led Sunderland so well in the 2006-07 season.
In his recent book, Keane speaks so well about his life in management which began at Sunderland, the mistakes he made there and at Ipswich and the lessons he learned along the way. He sounded like a man who was aware of his shortcomings, who was working on them and who seemed happy with his dual roles at Villa and Ireland.
That last aspect has, for whatever reason, now become untenable for Keane.
We dearly hope he does settle down to the job in hand with Ireland but looking at Roy’s life so far, it is usually best to assume the path less travelled is the one he’ll take.
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