Is Celtic a good move for Roy Keane?
IN The Second Half, Roy Keane and Roddy Doyle’s publisher, Orion, promises a book that “reevaluates the meaning of success” and that will explore “challenges beyond the pitch”.
Doyle expects no big reveal, has little relish for tittle-tattle. “It’s not what I’d be interested in finding. I’m much more interested in the personality. The events carry the personality.”
Roddy’s only complaint: a tight deadline. Now Orion may have to give him an extension. Because we would find out a lot more about all these things with Roy at Celtic.
There’s no better place to reevaluate success. When stacks of championship medals get scattered out as stepping stones to glamorous postings like Norwich; everything you thought you knew about success must be reevaluated. If it is challenges beyond the pitch Roy is after, the insults, assaults and maybe even the odd parcel bomb will provide plenty to occupy him.
The events themselves — 6-0s against Inverness and the 5-1s at Partick — won’t matter as much. And with not a lot else to measure him on; Roy will stand or fall in Glasgow on his personality.
It might be the very place where he finds out more about himself than Roddy can ever tease out.
Neil Lennon described this world as a “political environment” and he wasn’t just talking about the displays of political leaning. The scene is a savagely intense bubble with a press corps agitating for angles and conflicts to maintain an interest the action on the pitch often can’t hold.
Lennon struggled with the politics at times, becoming a divisive figure. In other ways, he played it beautifully, making himself a figurehead and departing a kind-of hero, partly on acceptable results, partly because his people knew he regarded the job as a privilege.
Roy was born to be a figurehead but can he convince people it would be a privilege? We thought Keane would never involve himself in politics — or punditry either — but the moment he broke bread again with the FAI, that changed.
In a way, Roy has already achieved enough with Ireland. There are no players to find. Prospects are grim. But he showed willingness to subordinate himself, he made a few jokes and styled himself as the uncle in the family nobody likes.
If he has taken a step on the political ladder, it might already be time for the next rung. As Plato put it; “one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” We don’t know if that’s the way Roy feels about Martin O’Neill, but a man that driven is bound to come round to that way of thinking.
Celtic gives him at least a year to work on a plausible version of success. Attractive football maybe. The odd mugging of superior European opponents. Champions League qualification would smooth things with the fans but failure couldn’t be laid at the new man’s door. Failure might even give him more freedom to find himself.
As a manager, he can align himself to a football philosophy without worrying if the team will win. As a politician, he’ll have to come up with a kind of philosophy too, emulate the sense of purpose Lennon created, at least while he waits for the Old Firm rivalry to re-ignite and define everything.
If his personality stands up, Roy could get out in two years and his legend might even allow him skip the Norwich stepping stone. Or, if this is truly his managerial level, he might even make a home; align himself to the one thing Celtic can give him: A cause.
After he left the club as a player, Roy gave an interview to David Walsh in the London Times.
“I think of the last game I played for Celtic. I gave away one or two passes. Two stray, silly passes, and it eats away at me.”
That’s the manifesto right there, or at least the rhetoric he must sell. Make the job about standards, whatever the occasion, whatever the opposition. They will lap that up. He might even become the uncle they grow to love.
IF Roy Keane takes the Celtic job and wins a league and cup double in his first season in charge at Parkhead, what will the reaction be? Sad to say, it will be one almighty shrug. If there is a division to watch in Scotland next season it is the Championship, with Rangers, Hearts and Hibs all vying for promotion.
If Celtic win the league for the fourth successive year, they will be achieving the minimum required, nothing more. Under Neil Lennon they finished 29 points clear of second-placed Motherwell, and anything other than retaining their title would be an abject failure, no matter who the manager is.
Sure, right now Celtic may seem an incredibly appealing job for Keane, and few would blame him if he took it. For a start, there is a huge amount of history and prestige that comes with the role, particularly when it is a club you have supported since you were a boy and briefly played for.
Then there is an opportunity to add trophies to a managerial CV that at present stands at one solitary English Championship title, won with Sunderland back in 2006-07.
Finally, the challenge of breaking new ground in the Champions League with Celtic – the club have not reached the quarter-finals in the tournament’s current guise – would undoubtedly appeal to a man who saved some of his best performances for Europe’s premier competition.
But Keane needs to look at the bigger picture, and consider what he said when he took the role as Martin O’Neill’s assistant in November.
“There is loads I want to learn,” he said back then. “You look at the top managers out there, you are always learning about the game.
“If you think you have all the answers that’s when you’re heading for trouble. I’m under no illusions. I want to learn. I never once, even at Sunderland, thought I had all the answers. This is an opportunity to learn.”
So is it time to learn or time to practice what he preaches? Having admitted his previous roles were not particularly successful, a spell under a more experienced man could do him the power of good.
Then there is the idea that this is a new, more rounded Keane — or, as he memorably put it back in November, ‘there’s nothing to tame, I’m not some sort of animal’.
He seems to have enjoyed his punditry work, which he would also have to give up if he took the Celtic job. You also have to wonder whether this is the right job at the wrong time. During O’Neill’s time at Celtic he had to compete against a fine Rangers team. Every title meant something.
If Keane takes the Celtic job now then everything he does of merit will be met by apathy. You only have to look at Lennon to see that his clearly superb work there does not guarantee a fine job elsewhere. Tottenham, for example, preferred a manager who had shone during 16 months at Southampton than one who had completed four years in Glasgow.
Then there is the question of how Keane would handle the pressures of the job. He has dealt with the media well during his brief stint with Ireland, but at Celtic he would be the focus of an entire country. He would be a bigger name than any of the players, and every story would be about him. One slip, one angry word and the story would spin against him.
If and when Rangers return to the top flight, many would simply be waiting for Keane to explode in the white-hot heat of an Old Firm.
It should not be forgotten that many feel he is fortunate to be back in the Ireland fold considering the events of 2002 and Saipan.
Others have been ostracised for less, and there should be an acceptance that Keane must repay the faith the FAI, John Delaney and O’Neill showed in him.
If he does resign from his post with the national team, a huge amount of goodwill and excitement that has built up over the last few months will dissipate.
Keane and Ireland are in a very promising place at present. Taking the Celtic job could undo that in one fell swoop – and the rewards are unlikely to make it worthwhile.
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