Roy Keane has today been unveiled as Aston Villa's new assistant manager through a press conference at Villa's training ground, and while we can't ever recall an assistant manager having his own press conference, we're not going to be the ones to question it.
Keane, who is currently assistant manager to Martin O'Neill with the Republic of Ireland, was quickly asked how the former Celtic manager reacted when presented with the idea of his number two taking up another position, and his response shows that it doesn't seem to be a big deal at all.
He was fine, we had a couple of conversations and he was very positive.
In fact, there a few positives which can be taken from Keane's new role, not least his day-to-day work with Irish players such as Ciaran Clark, Samir Carruthers, Enda Stevens, and Jack Grealish. There is also the benefit of working with another manager and any systems he may like to employ, and Keane listed his relationship with Paul Lambert as a reason he was drawn to the Villa job:
It was the whole package. I know Paul, Villa's a top club and I can continue working with Ireland.
Aston Villa will be hoping the presence of one of Europe's greatest ever midfielders will help boost the squad and avoid another relegation dogfight, although Keane was more straight-forward with the details of his involvement, as he said:
I'm here to help Paul. I keep my job description pretty simple. I'm here to help get results.
So a typically blunt and to-the-point press briefing from Roy Keane, it will be interesting to see just how he manages to juggle both assistant positions in an important year where Aston Villa need to offer more in terms of Premier League position, and Ireland desperately need to hit the ground running in their Euro 2016 qualification.
via Birmingham Mail.
