Roy Keane: 'If I sign on for another year with TV, I will give up on that dream of being a manager'

Former Ireland and Manchester United captain Keane wonders if his reputation among club chairmen is irreparably damaged but he retains the bug for everyday involvement

Roy Keane. Picture: Dan Linehan

Roy Keane admits his footballing future may remain in punditry, as his absence from a managerial post lurches towards 11 years.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, the former Ireland and Manchester United captain wonders if his reputation among club chairmen is irreparably damaged but he retains the bug for everyday involvement.

Keane was only two months retired in 2006 when Sunderland offered him a swift route into management, a role he excelled in by taking them from the second from bottom of the Championship to title winners in the space of eight months. A mere five months elapsed from his departure at Sunderland before Ipswich Town hired Keane for 20 months.

Five years as Martin O’Neill’s assistant with Ireland followed, a similar role he fulfilled at Nottingham Forest. Since his exit in June 2019, the 50-year-old’s attachment to the game has been as a Sky Sports pundit.

“There are days where I look back on my time in Sunderland and think I did enough, Ipswich didn’t work out but there were good things there,” the Corkman says.

“If I was somebody else looking at my CV, I’d be going, ‘Why doesn’t he get another opportunity?’ 

“Is my name tarnished in boardrooms? Who knows? People say you have to play the game? I don’t know that game. In all my years there is nobody in the media I have a relationship with. That’s a good thing but people inside the game see it as a bad thing.

“I’m sure if I had a relationship with a football writer, he would give me a break but I never wanted people to give me a break. That’s my point. I want people to say I was a good player, or coach, or manager, or pundit because I was. No hidden agendas.” 

His cravings for involvement are at their most acute on Saturday afternoons, when he’s drawn to keep tabs on the live scores.

“F***ing Harrogate Town are one-nil up,” he jests with customary dry humour. “I definitely have that bug, that desire to go back into it.

“If it doesn’t happen, so be it. I might then have closure on it. If I sign on for another year with TV, I will give up on that dream of being a manager.

“But maybe my career going forward will be punditry. I can’t be afraid of that.”