In the first book ever to be rewritten line-for-line on Twitter, Roy Keane has revealed in his new autobiography why he turned down Celtic's offer to become manager.
Keane explains that he didn't feel that they had full confidence in him and thought they could have made him feel more wanted. The Irish assistant manager met with Dermot Desmond in Dublin while on international duty but after mulling things over, he decided to turn the Celtic majority shareholder down.
He writes:
It was all pretty straightforward. There would be one or two restrictions, about staff. They had already picked the man who would be my assistant and they were insisting on him.
It didn’t scare me off but it did get me thinking. It wasn’t an ideal start. Were they doubting me already.
The Daily Mail are speculating that his assistant would have been Ronny Delia, who of course was appointed manager after Keane turned them down. Keane had sought out the advice of Martin O'Neill but realised they would ultimately come down to his own feeling:
I was delighted. It was a massive compliment. Over the years, I had always said: 'If you’re offered the Celtic job, you don’t turn it down.'
I was in a predicament ...and my gut feeling was saying: 'You’re on your own with this one.'
The offer from Celtic was non-negotiable. Something which didn't sit well with Keane:
I got in touch with Celtic’s chief executive, Peter Lawwell and asked him to give me a ballpark figure before negotiations got going.
He mentioned a figure and he said: 'But that’s it'. Paul [Paul Gilroy, LMA laywer] told me there were a lot of clauses in the contract that he wasn’t happy with. And the figures were non-negotiable.
I got my head around that. But it felt a bit too familiar. I had been down this road before when I signed for Celtic as a player.
I felt they wanted me but they weren’t showing how much they wanted me.
In the end, Keane rang Desmond and said 'I’m really honoured you offered me the job but I want to stay with Martin.'
hat-tip: Daily Mail
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