It has now been over a decade since Roy Keane led any side as a manager.
The Irish legend has, of course, had several notable stints as an assistant in the intervening period, but his last stint as top dog was a mixed spell in charge of Ipswich Town which came to a somewhat acrominious end in 2011, with the club teetering dangerously close to relegation to League One.
His biggest success in management came in his very first job, in which he led Sunderland to a Premier League return, and he has hinted down through the years that he would like to return to management in future.
Keane famously teamed up with Martin O'Neill to lead the Republic of Ireland national team during the 2010s, and saw the highlight of his coaching career thus far during this period, as Ireland reached the last 16 of EURO 2016 under the stewardship of the duo.
With things hitting a new low for the current Ireland side with Friday's drab defeat to Greece at home, Stephen Kenny's position appears increasingly untenable - and one of Roy Keane's former Ireland teammates thinks that Keano should be considered as a potential replacement.
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Andy Townsend thinks Roy Keane is what Ireland needs as a manager
“He can be a very good manager!” 🔥
“The Ireland team has become insignificant. Roy Keane would absolutely fire them up!”
Andy Townsend is expecting Roy Keane to make a return to management soon. 👀💪 pic.twitter.com/XG2WSPyo5V— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) October 16, 2023
Speaking on talkSPORT on Monday, former Ireland captain Andy Townsend said that he still believed Roy Keane had the potential to become a good manager. Townsend said that, despite Keane's obvious enjoyment of his recent forays into punditry, he believed his ex-teammate's bug for management had never disappeared.
Townsend, who captained Ireland at the USA '94 World Cup, went on to say that the biggest issue that may present itself would be the potential for infamously hot-headed Keane to clash with the administration of the FAI, or of any potential employers for that matter. He said that that would likely be the biggest issue in the minds of the FAI's decision-makers:
I don't think his bug for wanting to get back in as a manager has ever gone away. I'm sure, from his point of view, he would relish another opportunity.
I've actually always said that I think Roy could be a very good manager, I still believe that. The difficulty now is that those around him might wind him up again to the point that he just explodes and he's gone in the middle of the night. It could be one of those.
The environment and the particular club he's working for or association he's working for, and how much they let him get on with it...if they let him get on with it I don't see any reason why he couldn't go and have a degree of success.
The hard part nowadays would be allowing him to do the job as he sees fit without interference. If that comes his way, that's when he'll be gone.
He had his spell with Martin already, from an Ireland point-of-view. As I mentioned, I think Stephen Kenny's done now, there's nowhere for him. It's got so flat and so poor. People are now starting to become disinterested, the Irish football team has become insignificant.
You can't have that, you've got to have someone in there who can start to get the fire in the bellies once more and get them going in the right direction.
Someone like Roy Keane would absolutely do that, but would the FAI take him as a coach? I'm not so sure they probably would.
Though Keane saw great success as Ireland's assistant manager under Martin O'Neill, their tenure ended with a dire UEFA Nations League campaign which saw Ireland pick up just two points, after a 12-month period which saw them lose 5-1 at home to Denmark and 4-1 in Cardiff.
Given the length of time since Keane worked any coaching job, and the manner in which his previous stint with Ireland ended, it's hard to predict whether Irish fans would be happy to see the former captain handed the gig should Stephen Kenny step away.
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