According to reports on Thursday morning, Martin O’Neill is edging closer to becoming the new Stoke boss – with Roy Keane set to follow him.
Should we be surprised that Keane wants to follow O’Neill to the Premier League? Not in the slightest. Although the Potters are currently in disarray, there can be no denying that the lure of top-flight English football is just too strong to turn down.
O’Neill is in his fifth year as Republic of Ireland manager. It’s roughly the same amount of time he spent at Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City and Celtic and one more than at Aston Villa. It’s clear that, like any manager, O’Neill appreciates being given time to work on a project and, in most cases, he’s afforded just that.
It’s been no different with Ireland. Fair enough, he’s come in after Giovanni Trapattoni and lasted as long as the Italian, matching Trap’s achievement of reaching Euro 2012 by qualifying for 2016’s finals in France.
Like Trap, though, he also failed to reach a World Cup. While his predecessor’s came via grave injustice, O’Neill’s was a spectacular tactical misstep that allowed Ireland to be ruthlessly exposed by Christian Eriksen and Denmark.
With that, it’s understandable that O’Neill would want to jump ship back to the Premier League, where he may feel he has a point to prove after his last stint in England was an increasingly harrowing one with Sunderland.
Keane is different. While he has managerial experience himself, including his own spell at Sunderland, he has much more to prove than O’Neill. Having been the number two for O’Neill’s entire reign, stepping up to the plate to lead Ireland’s bid to reach Euro 2020 seemed a natural progression to a lot of observers.
But, when you really think about it, there’s nothing overly striking about Keane following O’Neill to the bet365. While the juicy subplot of their first game being against Keane’s former side Manchester United will doubtless create some headlines, it’s difficult to blame him for wanting to continue as O’Neill’s number two – somewhat out of the firing line while inevitably remaining in the headlines in some shape or form.
He’d be earning just as much – if not more – money at Stoke. Why would he give that up in favour of taking the thankless task that is trying to turn this Ireland crop into an inspiring, entertaining outfit?
While the pull of the Premier League is incontrovertible, there remains a small, lingering curiosity of how Keane would fare as O’Neill’s successor, rather than his trusted lieutenant. The dearth of interesting names in the running instantly catapults him to near the top of any prospective list but that’s immaterial now.
It should be noted, too, that the international game is a different beast to the day-to-day pressure cooker of top-flight club management. Yet, it’s perhaps an environment in which Keane could flourish. His personality is one which saw him clash with players at Sunderland and Ipswich, yet the more infrequent manager-player interactions in international football could keep friction at arm’s length.
The way it’s going, we may never know what Keane is like as Ireland boss. For now, he seems content with staying on as O’Neill’s guard dog and we can’t really blame him. But, with his stature and the way he commands respect, it would have been interesting to see him give the Ireland job a crack, assuming the FAI were going to offer him it of course.
Seeing that fire in his belly again, on a quest for redemption after a chastening experience at Ipswich (by his own admission), would have been stirring. But we’ll have to settle for something different.
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