Roy slaps premier league price tag on Manchester pad

THE six-oven Aga is a bit redundant for a man who confesses to being unable to boil an egg and the outdoor swimming pool would only tempt penguins in this weather, even if it is heated.

But perhaps the most eye-popping thing about Roy Keane’s eight-bedroom, 10-bathroom, 9,500 sq ft former family home outside Manchester is the price he hopes to get for it now that he’s finally decided Ipswich is home and it’s time to put his previous residence on the market.

Keane is asking €11.2 million for the property which, if achieved, would net him a profit of almost €6m over what he paid for it in 2005 and the cost of the improvements he has made since.

The football legend is famous for producing magic in midfield but whether he can work his wizardry in a property market in mid-recession is another matter.

However, if the estate agents can be believed, this house is in the premier league of luxury with an address as prestigious as Old Trafford itself.

Chantry Dane, as it is called, is, according to its sales team, “one of the finest homes in the locality”, the locality being “one of Cheshire’s most exclusive residential areas” with “one of the country’s most desirable postcodes“.

Along with the ample supply of sleeping quarters and loos, the house also has a cavernous kitchen with a breakfast bar the length of a dugout only with far more comfortable seating, a dining room with seating for 10 people who would have to stretch to bump elbows, two sitting rooms, a study, a snooker room and two cloakrooms.

Unlike other multimillionaire footballers who think taste is how you know you shouldn’t eat dog poo, the former Keane homestead is a very refined affair, with plenty of solid timber panelling, classically styled furnishings and elegant lighting — no Taj Mahal-themed relaxation rooms, pink-marbled hallways or holograms of Roy on the ceilings.

It bears no signs of the fact that five youngsters and a dog once lived there, so pristine is the condition in which it has been left. In fact, it’s so impeccably styled and maintained that Roy’s contention that his wife, Theresa, was in charge of all things interior is hard to believe unless she shares her husband’s renowned passion for perfection.

A new owner will have the chance to let their hair down outdoors, however, as the 1.2 acre site holds an all-weather tennis court, sunken trampoline, goal net and the penguin magnet.

But they’re surrounded by such neatly kept box hedges and understated flower beds that the whole setting almost cries out for a gold-plated musical fountain playing Elvis tunes.

The neighbours might not approve but if you can stretch to €11.2m for a new pad, you probably won’t be relying on the people next door to feed the cat when you jet to the Maldives for the weekend.

Keane has said he was reluctant to let the house go but, despite recent poor performances, he intends being in Ipswich for another couple of years at least.

After that, he says he would consider a move abroad or maybe even back to Ireland. Get the ‘For Sale’ signs out of the shed quickly — there might just be a buyer in town.