Rumours rife of Roy’s Celtic role

It’s a measure of Roy Keane’s stature that he can dominate a stage even when he doesn’t show up. Perhaps especially when he doesn’t show up.

Ireland’s assistant manager was due to give a routine press conference yesterday afternoon at the Aviva Stadium but, amid fierce speculation that he was close to being named the new manager of Celtic, it hardly came as a surprise when Martin O’Neill suddenly appeared in his place.

And the Ireland manager duly put flesh on the growing rumours of the Celtic connection, revealing that Keane has already held initial talks with the club’s majority shareholder Dermot Desmond about succeeding Neil Lennon as the manager of the Glasgow giants.