Roy Keane had a truly impressive career on the pitch, spanning 18 years before the former Ireland international hung up his boots in 2006.
The former midfielder spent 12 years with Manchester United, taking on the captain’s badge under Sir Alex Ferguson, making 479 appearances, grabbing 51 goals and 41 assists under the legendary manager.
Keane moved to Old Trafford from Nottingham Forest in 1993 and went on to win seven Premier League titles, the Champions League, four FA Cups, four Community Shields and an Intercontinental Cup, not to mention three Footballer of the Year awards for the club.
However in November 2005 he left United, leaving him clubless before joining Celtic in January 2006, before retiring at the end of the season.
From there, the former United captain took his first steps into management, taking charge of Sunderland at the start of the following season, helping them win the Championship in his debut season, going on to last a year and a half in the Premier League before parting ways with The Black Cats in December 2008.
Four months later in April 2004, Keane was appointed as Ipswich’s manager, lasting nearly two years before leaving the club in January 2011 in what has been his last role as head coach.
Between 2013 and 2018, Keane took on the role of assistant coach of the Ireland national team alongside manager Martin O’Neill, having a brief three month stint in 2014 being assistant manager to Paul Lambert at Aston Villa.
However, when Martin O’Niell took charge at Nottingham Forest, Keane returned to his former club to be O’Neill’s assistant manager ocne again, however only lasted five months before turning to the world of punditry.
Since then however, Keane has been linked to fully taking charge of the Ireland national side on three occasions, and has now spoken out about his feelings over the role with The Overlap.
When asked about being approached, Keane commented: “Yeah of course. But I think they spoke to everybody, they spoke to every Tom, Dick and Harry.”
He continued: “The reason you speak to them, the reason you might take the job is that you think you can help the team. You obviously think you can help, whether it be the issues they might have, a lack of quality, you try and get them organised, get a bit of fight and a bit of spirit.
“Ireland, I know that’s not enough always, but they do lack real quality as well, of course. But yeah, I spoke about the job, even that was a farce. The amount of people who have come out in the last six months saying they were offered the job, or they spoke to them.
“But that’s the FAI again, I’ve said it before, they couldn’t organise a p*** up in a brewery, it’s one of those ones. You look at the manager and you fear for him, and he’s up against it.”
Current manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has struggeld to get any results with the current Ireland squad, only winning a four of his 12 games in charge, beating Bulgaria and Finland twice, however recently losing to Armenia.
When asked if any manager could be successful with the current Ireland squad, Roy Keane responded: “It’d be tough. But obviously to lose to Armenia and get well-beaten, apparently, that’s a sore one.”
He continued: “It’s a long way back, but the FAI have to get their house in order… Get some proper people in there.
“There were people over the last few years who interviewed me for the job, they’re gone now. There’s always people coming and going.
“They need to get some proper people into the organisation… At the moment, I don’t know if they’ve got one [a sporting director].”
