Keane eyes manager role for end of playing days

MANCHESTER UNITED captain Roy Keane says he would like to be a football manager when his playing career ends.

The United captain, who faces a possible disrepute charge from the FA over controversial comments made in his autobiography, wants to take the FA coaching course.

"I've spoken to the manager (Alex Ferguson) already about getting my badges," he said in the latest serialisation of his autobiography in the News of the World.

"I'm nearly 31, I've got another four years left in me and then management is something I'll seriously consider.

"There are people I have learned from in my career and others I would rather ignore. But, without international football, I'm going to have a few weekends free during the season and I'd like to put them to good use."

Keane was thrown out of the Irish World Cup squad in May after a row with Ireland manager Mick McCarthy at the team's training camp in Saipan.

The former Ireland captain has ruled out playing international football again while McCarthy remains in charge.

Keane cites United boss Ferguson and Brian Clough, his previous manager at Nottingham Forest, as examples of people he has learnt from, while describing others in the game as "bluffers".

"Most managers don't manage at all. They pick the team, buy players, dictate tactics, placate the directors and court the media. Then they get the sack," Keane said.

"Alex Ferguson is different. He knows Manchester United from top to bottom, watches A and reserve team games as keenly as the first team and will know as much about the strengths and weaknesses of a youth team player.

"He is renowned for his attention to detail. He involves himself in everything, from travelling times to which hotels offer peace and quiet, from details to personal problems.

"Last season he ordered a creche to be built at Old Trafford, so wives and kids could attend home games in a comfortable family environment," Keane added.

"A small, but important gesture to improve a situation. That is real management."

Keane said Clough, who turned Forest into a leading force in European football in the late 1970s and early 1980s, also dealt in detail, and, "invariably got it right".

"Every football match consists of a thousand little things which, added together, make the final score.

"The manager who can't spot the details in a forensic manner is bluffing. The game is full of bluffers, banging on about rolling your sleeves up, having the right attitude and taking some pride in the shirt you are wearing.

"A manager who trades in these cliched generalisations, and there are many of them, is missing the point."

Keane has courted controversy with his yet-to-be-published book, in which he has taken a swipe at the FA Cup, criticised former Ireland manager Jack Charlton, and expressed sympathy for former United team mate Frenchman Eric Cantona after he attacked a fan in a premier league game in 1995.

He is also facing legal action from Manchester City player Alf Inge Haaland and his club, after saying he deliberately fouled the Norwegian defender during a match last year.