The name of Roy Keane has continued to pop up in the debate surrounding who should replace Stephen Kenny as Republic of Ireland manager.
Captain of Ireland during his playing days, Keane also spent five years as assistant manager of the national team under Martin O'Neill from 2013 to 2018, helping to bring Ireland to the knockout stages of EURO 2016.
Despite his experience as assistant coach with O'Neill, it is over 13 years since Keane was a manager, and that spell at Ipswich ended in some acrimony. Though he had a reasonably successful stint as Sunderland boss in the late 2000s, his lack of recent managerial experience would be a major question mark hanging over Keane.
With limited options, however, rumours have continued to abound that the Corkman could be in contention. He hinted to Jamie Carragher on a recent episode of The Overlap that he would be interested in taking the Ireland job but, on this week's episode, has now changed his tune, revealing that he is "swaying" away from a return to management.
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Roy Keane "swaying" towards staying away from management
At the end of this week's episode of 'Stick to Football' in association with SkyBet, Gary Neville asked his former Manchester United teammate Roy Keane for the "weekly update" on the prospects of him returning to management with the Ireland team.
(The discussion of Keane's potential return to management begins at around 1:08:50 in the above video)
When asked whether the FAI had approached him for the vacant role, Keane said he had heard "nothing." He went on to say that he was leaning towards a permanent retirement from coaching and management, saying that it was "not worth the hassle":
Nothing [from the FAI]. I think I'll be here for a while.
We're talking about going back into management...I think the longer you're out of it, the more you think. The last few chats we've had about it, even before Frank [Lampard] came in, you do ask yourself.
I'm swaying now towards not going back into it. I just think it's not worth the hassle. People constantly disrespect you, sometimes with offers or time wasted.
When you go down to a certain level and you have any sort of chats or discussions about going back into work...I'm not joking you. People think you're so desperate you'll sign anything. I know there are managers out there doing that, absolutely.
Ian Wright would agree with Keane's point, questioning when the likes of Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola get to enjoy the fruits of their labour after months of tireless work building their teams.
With Keane now seemingly out of the picture, an already short list of candidates for the Ireland job becomes even shorter.
Conflicting reports have emerged surrounding Lee Carsley in recent weeks, but it does seem unlikely that the FAI will be able to land their prime target due to his desire to move up to the England senior manager role. Neil Lennon appears to be the current frontrunner, though he has noted this week that the process to select the new manager has been a lengthy one, casting doubt on whether we will have white smoke anytime soon.
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