Roy Keane at 50: Age not mellowing the pundit that goes deeper and cruder than most

Roy Keane: Age not mellowing the pundit that goes deeper and cruder than most. Picture Dan Linehan

From comparing it to the dentist’s chair, Roy Keane has ended up in pundit’s chair and, on his 50th birthday, there’s little sign of him leaving its comforts anytime soon.

This wasn’t in the script. Keane had only to wait two months from the end of his glittering career for a managerial opportunity to present itself but a decade has passed since his last post as boss at Ipswich Town.

Granted, he did snub an invitation from fellow Corkonian Dermot Desmond in 2014 to take the Celtic job and there have been assistant roles for Ireland, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest but no longer is he linked to vacancies when they invariably arise.

Keane need only glance sideways in the Sky Sports studio to absorb how a candidate’s appeal to Chairmen can fade. Graeme Souness was hardly unemployed over a 20-year spell, managing eight clubs until Freddy Shepherd lowered the axe in 2006.

For all the guile and experience the Scot possesses, he’s been left behind, even when his national association were hiring and firing bosses throughout a barren decade.

Answering Gary Neville’s quickfire 50 questions to mark his milestone birthday, Keane grimaced when citing Ipswich as his biggest regret.

The gap between him quitting Sunderland and joining the Tractor Boys in April 2009 was a mere five months and the folly of accepting the post without first meeting chief executive Simon Clegg was first on his list of learnings.

In sleepy Suffolk, Keane was unable to enliven Ipswich in the same manner he’d done for Sunderland, achieving a 15th-place finish in his sole full campaign. “Too many draws,” he lamented, summarising an underwhelming 20-month spell.

A route back was provided by Martin O’Neill, whom he befriended while working for ITV, yet the inclusion of Keane on his Ireland ticket came on the presumption that his assistant would defect once the right offers came his way.

Celtic seemed to be just that, until Keane changed his mind over a bank holiday weekend while in the Ireland camp, maybe consoled by the prospect of eventually succeeding the manager.

Euro 2016 likely fuelled that succession plan concept but results and relationships plummeted over a wretched 2018 that led to both men being fired by the FAI.

For the past two years, Keane’s involvement has been confined to that role he so detested in his prime, that of television analyst. Be it the Premier League for Sky Sports or international duty for ITV, the firebrand is the go-to pundit when it comes to the big occasion.

Well-paid and well-profiled, Keane has verged on a tightrope of becoming rent-a-quote, the panellist that goes deeper and cruder than most. Harry Arter and Jon Walters learnt all about that in the dying members of his Ireland stint, as did “idiot” Kyle Walker from the studio.

Talk of age mellowing Keane is premature and overhyped, for his guaranteed cutting remarks are ideal to a captive audience of millions.

Convincing club owners that they’re relevant and appropriate within dressing-room and boardroom settings is the task the quinquagenarian needs to conquer if the managerial career he seemed adept at is to be revived.