Keane hopes to repair friendships

ROY Keane hopes to repair damaged friendships with his international team mates and he does not rule out managing the Irish team in the future, it emerged yesterday.

But he will only manage the boys in green if the organisational standards at the FAI are improved.

“I don’t know. There’d have to be big changes, professionals running it, get rid of the amateurs,” he said in a wide-ranging interview.

There are also fresh hopes that he can rebuild the bruised relationship with his former team mates.

However, his sending off, after elbowing Jason McAteer during the Manchester United game against Sunderland on Saturday, could have dashed this optimism.

When an angry Keane was walking from off the field Niall Quinn tried to shake his hand. Keane refused the offer and the United manager Alex Ferguson also became angry with Quinn.

The is the 11th red card Keane has picked up in his career and he’s likely to face an automatic three match ban.

The United captain refused to speak to reporters who gathered outside his home at Hale in Cheshire yesterday.

The latest spat between Keane and his old colleagues came after he appeared to offer an olive branch to Quinn and Staunton.

“Time is a great healer and although I’m bitterly disappointed at missing the World Cup, I bear neither Niall or Steve malice for the unfortunate situation that arose and I hope that in due course that the damage to our relationship will be repaired,” he said in an interview in The Observer.

Keane made the comments in the interview where he had earlier accused the duo of being “yes men”. He later rang back to extend the hand of friendship to Quinn and Staunton.

Keane seems particularly hurt that his pal Staunton immediately backed Mick McCarthy after the bust up in Saipan.

“The stuff I could tell you about Staunton. And him about me. People in greenhouses shouldn’t throw stones,” he said.

His dislike for Mick McCarthy shows no sign of abating despite the passage of time.

“I hope I don’t come across as bitter and twisted but that man can rot in hell for all I care. I don’t feel any guilt about that at all because he deserves it. F*** him. F****** tosser.”

Keane said that he has “no remorse” about the lunge on the Manchester City’s Alf Inge Haaland, and he admits that he would “probably” do the same thing again.

But the United captain insisted that he never “set out to deliberately injure any player.” He added that Eamon Dunphy used “a degree of artistic licence” when writing about the clash. Keane could this week face charges from FA over the allegedly pre-mediated Haaland tackle.

FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said: “It is likely that there will be some movement on the first situation (the tackle), probably by the end of the week.”

Whatever the chances of Roy building bridges with his team mates the fallout between John Giles and Eamon Dunphy, arising from the book, shows no sign of easing.

Giles has revealed that he will no longer contribute to Dunphy’s Last Word radio show.

Dunphy accused the one time Leeds hardman of being a “hypocrite” over his criticism of Roy Keane’s tackle on Haaland.

The two appeared on the Premiership programme on Saturday night with Bill O’Herlihy, but there was no interaction between the old pals.