The one and only Roy Keane gave a rare radio interview to Off The Ball which aired on Wednesday night, and he spoke to Ger Gilroy about a number of topics including his role as Martin O'Neill's assistant manager for Ireland.
Keane explained that his contract as a pundit with ITV is up in the summer and he will wait until then to reassess whether or not he wants to continue doing it, something he does on a year-by-year basis, as while he described the idea of doing TV as 'OK', he revealed that one thing he doesn't really like about it is having to watch the match in the studio, rather than being at it live.
Gilroy then suggested that his role as Ireland assistant manager would offer him a bit more joy in that regard, but Keane was quick to explain why that isn't always the best way to spend an afternoon.
Yeah, but listen, that's not all it's cracked up to be, either. I enjoy watching the Irish players but I travelled to Wigan/Bristol on Saturday, and O'Dowda was on the bench. So you travel and you go 'my God, the one player I came to watch is on the bench', and that's the risk that you have to take.
But this idea of travelling to the matches and meeting people for a cup of tea at half-time...that doesn't rock my boat. Often at these places, you can't even get a decent cup of tea. You have to make small talk with a lot of people you don't want to have small talk with. It's a battle to get into the car park, you bump into a lot of idiots, so don't be kidded on that it's all glamorous.
The idea of networking, and having small talk and a cup of tea, and sitting in car parks and motorways for hours doesn't give me a buzz in the morning when I get up. But watching the matches and watching great players, that's great, of course.
The thought of making a cup of tea for Roy Keane is a terrifying one.
Another point that Keane made, regarding his reluctance to make appearances at Q&A events such as the ones he participated in recently, was that what he says often gets reported out of context, as the tongue-in-cheek comment he made regarding not reading emails from the medical staff made it's way around the internet.
Keane was not complaining about his duties as Ireland assistant boss, but he was pointing out that everything, even what many would consider to be a dream job, has it's downsides too.
We hope he sticks with the punditry as he is one of the best to watch when he's seen something he's not impressed with, because he tells it like it is, just like he did regarding scouting Irish players in English football.
You can listen back to Keane's interview on Off The Ball in full over on Newstalk.ie.
