Robson—Keane may be FAI’s dream team
FAI officials currently sifting through the short list of applicants for the vacant position of manager to Ireland remain silent on the issue of Keane’s return and on their progress to date.
However, Robson is in the front line of applicants for the job left vacant by the resignation of Mick McCarthy. His friendship with Keane has endured for ten years, since they were colleagues with Manchester United.
Robson has already spoken to Bryan Hamilton, the man appointed by the FAI to assist them in finding a new manager.
And when he is interviewed by the FAI officers, it is expected he will confirm that Keane would be his selection as assistant manager.
The three FAI officials who form the interview board, together with former Northern Ireland international Bryan Hamilton, have cut off all means of communication with the media, so determined are they to keep their deliberations private.
FAI officials do not need reminding of the ‘media circus’ that surrounded the interview process when they were about to appoint Mick McCarthy to the job almost seven years ago.
Teams of reporters representing the print media. Radio and tv stations were camped outside the hotel in England where they were interviewing the applicants.
Every football personality whose shadow fell across their path had to run a gauntlet of tape recorders and cameras on their way in and out of the hotel.
Consequently, reliable information as to how the current interview process is progressing is impossible to gather.
But the suggestion that Keane’s name has been mentioned to the officers in conjunction with Robson’s application is reliable.
Hamilton was appointed by the FAI to conduct preliminary interviews with those who applied to fill the vacancy. He commented this week on the high standard of applications.
They certainly included bids by Brian Kerr, Frank Stapleton, John Aldridge, Peter Reid, former Japan manager Philippe Troussier and Kenny Dalglish.
Some of those applicants presented the FAI with proposals to form a “dream team” of management - Peter Reid would appoint Niall Quinn as his assistant; Brian Kerr favoured the former Spurs full-back Chris Hughton; Aldridge would likely have his former Liverpool colleague Ray Houghton as his second in command. Robson may well have stolen a march on the other applicants, however, by actually identifying Keane as his assistant.
FAI officials accept that whoever is appointed will have to visit Old Trafford as his first port of call. The World Cup disaster polarised views within the FAI at the time of the Saipan crisis.
The legacy from that sorry episode still colours attitudes towards Keane but it is generally accepted that the new manager must open the door to his return if he is to earn public credibility.
Keane may choose not to play for Ireland again even if he is offered the opportunity.
He is on record as saying, ever before the Irish travelled to the Far East, that he intended to retire from international football after the World Cup.
It is felt in some quarters that he would return only if he were in charge. His influence at Old Trafford is so powerful that there are those who regard him as a bigger force than Alex Ferguson.
United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy this week highlighted the extraordinary control that Keane exerts over the United dressing-room when he said: “He is already the boss of Manchester United in the dressing-room.”
Van Nistelrooy was reported as being in favour of Keane succeeding Ferguson as manager of United and he said: “When he comes into the dressing-room he is the main man in there. He makes all the decisions for the players. His football brain is perfect out on the pitch and in the dressing-room. I am very pro Roy Keane.”
FAI officials sensibly ask whether a player who is so powerful with the biggest club in England could accept the authority of another within the Irish camp. Keane’s long-standing friendship with Robson is well documented.
Robson was coming to the end of a glittering career when Keane was signed from Nottingham Forest but they were colleagues for several years and socialised together as well.
What is certain is that Keane would be well-disposed towards Robson as manager of Ireland.
Given official recognition as assistant manager, he would then enjoy a similar arrangement to that which applies at Manchester United.
Ferguson is club manager at Old Trafford but Keane is unquestionably in charge on the pitch. A similar arrangement would suit him well with Ireland and would surely enhance Robson’s application.
It may just prove to be the FAI’s solution to an unhappy dilemma: At one stroke they would recruit the high-profile manager they favour and restore their most influential player.
The bonus for the FAI would be a condition that the contracts would last only as long as Ireland remain in the current European Championship.
The negative reaction of those within the FAI who are not in favour of recalling Keane might be countered if they were told that the Robson/Keane partnership had been told: “Get us to the European Finals in Portugal in 2004 ... or else!”
Meanwhile Luton manager Joe Kinnear claims he rejected the chance to be interviewed for the job.
Kinnear claims he refused to join that list in a telephone conversation with former Northern Ireland coach Bryan Hamilton, the FAI’s headhunter.
Kinnear said: “He asked me if I would go on a shortlist and be interviewed along with seven or eight other people, and I said no.
“If they don’t know what I’m capable of doing, why interview me? I’ve done enough in my life. If they want to give me the job they can, but I don’t do interviews.”
The Dublin-born former Wimbledon boss turned down the chance to succeed Jack Charlton in 1996 because the Irish did not offer him enough money.
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