A twist or two still to be played out

DID it really happen? Has Roy Keane just decommissioned himself at Old Trafford?

Or perhaps we should wait for photographic evidence - say, a shot of his Corkness in green and white hoops, celebrating the winning goal in his first Old Firm game. (Stop salivating at the back there bhoys and, well, ghirls).

Is there any other leading Irish personality - with the possible exception of Gerry Adams - whose public pronouncements are subjected to quite as much forensic examination as those of Roy Keane? And with good reason. From Saipan, through the extended saga of his return to international duty, to his latest remarks on the prospect of a life away from Old Trafford, it’s fair to say that Roy Keane has always carefully considered the timing and impact of his words.

So, if there’s one thing we can be sure about in the immediate aftermath of his interview on MUTV, it’s that Keane wasn’t speaking off the top of his head.

And you also suspect that he was speaking to an audience inside as well as outside of Old Trafford.

The talk was all of new scenes and fresh challenges and planning for the long-term future, but consider his response when asked if a new contract offer would change his mind about leaving Manchester United.

“That would be different but I’m not going to put a gun to anyone’s head,” said Keane.

“I’ve never, ever done that, even when I was at Forest. I’ve never gone looking for a new contract. I’ve always felt it was up to the club. It’s up to United but my gut feeling is that I won’t be offered another year.”

Of course, you can take the gun out of football, and still let people feel the force of your position. So, if United didn’t know it before, they know it now: keep Roy Keane dangling - as Brian Kerr might put it - and, next thing you know, he’ll be gone.

Injuries permitting, it won’t be the end of his career, but it will be the end of an era. Can it really be all of 13 years since he joined United from Nottingham Forest for a fee of £3.75 million, then a British transfer record? (Yep, that’s how long ago it was).

At the time, your correspondent was working for the late, lamented Sunday Press and, shortly after the transfer, tracked Keane down to his temporary lodgings in a hotel on the outskirts of Manchester.

The scene sticks in my mind: a room packed with luggage, clothing, a room service tray containing a half-eaten meal and, lying at the player’s feet and open at the property pages, a copy of a local newspaper. The new boy was clearly anxious to put down roots.

He was already starting to make his mark on the pitch - draped over the back of a chair was the scarlet shirt he’d worn in the Charity Shield final a couple of days before.

Keane chuckled as he recalled how on his first day at training he was welcomed by demands from his superstar team-mates for the loan of a fiver.

But the price tag on his head didn’t appear to phase him one bit and, understandably, he talked with almost boyish enthusiasm about the exciting possibilities that lay ahead.

No serious observer of the game would have backed against him but, equally, no-one could have imagined just what a rollercoaster 13 years it would be, a catalogue of thrilling highs and depressing lows: US ‘94, the double in his first season at United; taking over the captaincy from Eric Cantona; the cruciate ligament injury; the treble in 1999 and that yellow card after an epic personal display against Juventus which kept him out of the Champions’ League final in Barcelona; the ‘revenge’ tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland; qualification for the 2002 World Cup finals; Saipan, the seismic fall-out and the eventual international comeback.

For what now seems like almost as long a period of time, people have been talking about how Keano ain’t the player he used to be, a statement of the bleeding obvious which overlooks the fact that what he’s lost in turbo-charged power, he’s gained in terms of his peerless reading of the game. You only have to consider his recent man of the match performance against France to realise how, come his eventual retirement from international football, the loss to Ireland will be at least as acute as the prospect of his imminent loss to Manchester United.

It may be that, in his own mind - and for reasons that remain behind the scenes at Old Trafford - Keane is determined to make his exit sooner rather than later. But given that all are agreed that the player is “irreplaceable”, if I was Alex Ferguson, I’d be moving heaven and earth and even Malcolm Glazer to keep him at the club, and on the playing field, for as long as is humanly possible.

There’s been too much of an obituary feel to the coverage of the last couple of days. If the past is any guide, there could still be a couple of unexpected twists and turns in the playing career of Roy Keane.

Reds might be sweating and Celts quivering with anticipation, but in this neck of the woods, fingers will remain crossed that, whatever else happens in his career, the World Cup hasn’t seen the last of Roy Keane.