Fergie: New role can help Roy develop

Alex Ferguson may have poured scorn on Roy Keane’s managerial abilities in his recent book but he believes serving as Martin O’Neill’s lieutenant with Ireland can be the Cork man’s ticket back to the big time with a Premier League club.

Ferguson, who wrote in his autobiography that Keane didn’t have the “patience to build a team” at Sunderland and Ipswich, imparted a much more positive message for his Irish audience at Dublin’s Convention Centre last night.

“I think it’s terrific for Roy,” he enthused. “He hasn’t had a good experience as a manager but he’s young. I always say about management, I was an engineer and when I went full-time at 22 I took all my coaching badges and I made sure I was never going to go back to engineering.