THERE was quite a touching moment between Roy Keane and Martin O’Neill on the popular podcast Stick to Football in which the latter was the show’s guest last week.
The pair worked together as football pundits before O’Neill invited Keane to be his assistant manager when he landed the Republic of Ireland job in the autumn of 2013.
O’Neill and Keane enjoyed five happy years with Ireland which included qualification for Euro 2016 in France and a near-miss for the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia.
Who could forget Robbie Brady’s glancing header to down Italy in Lille to reach the knock-out stages of the Euros, or Keane and O’Neill embracing one another at the final whistle, only to be interrupted by Gigi Buffon, the legendary Italian goalkeeper and substitute on the night, to express his congratulations to the pair.
For most of those five years, O’Neill and Keane were box-office. The pair shifted newspapers like nobody else.
Sports editors loved them. Likewise, reporters on the international beat.
O’Neill’s dry wit went down well with the Irish media for the first couple of years, while Keane never disappointed in his press briefings at pitch-side in Gannon Park or the Grand Hotel in nearby Malahide.
Towards the end of the engrossing hour-long podcast, Keane told O’Neill that their five years together were arguably the highlight of his career.
“I go through my career, my experience with Ireland and Martin and particularly going to the Euros was probably the highlight of my career, which sounds bizarre,” Keane said.
“We always talk about playing, we all loved playing but our time with Ireland was probably the highlight. I just loved everything about it, the dynamics, the energy of the group, working with Martin and the other staff members...
“It was one of the highlights of my life.”
Slightly taken aback by Keane’s heartfelt declaration, O’Neill replied: “For you to say that for all the medals you’ve won in the game, that’s honestly and genuinely lovely to hear.”
Keane was a phenomenon during his playing days and post-playing days. Interest never waned in the Cork man.
I was fortunate enough to report on Keane’s last few seasons on the international stage.
There were few better, more raucous afternoons covering the Republic of Ireland team than when Portugal - inspired at the time by Luis Figo - and Holland came to Dublin in June and September of 2001 for two critical World Cup qualifiers.
Keane was 30-years-old and at the absolute peak of his powers. He was one of the best midfielders in world football and dragged Ireland through those two epic encounters, picking up a draw and a win that propelled Mick McCarthy’s side closer to the 2002 World Cup finals in the Far East.
You watch footage of Keane back in his heyday and he could bend results in Manchester United and Ireland’s favour by sheer force of will - but by also playing the game with unbelievable simplicity.
Once he got the ball, he would rarely give it away. Control. Pass. Control. Pass. And there was no better, more dogged midfielder in winning the ball back.
There was an awe about him – on and off the pitch. I remember he met the press before a World Cup qualifier in Cyprus, on the eve of winning his 50th cap and how it meant “absolutely nothing” to him.
The only thing that concerned him was winning the game, which Ireland duly did.
An hour before Ireland kicked off their 2002 World Cup against Cameroon in Niigata, nobody could fathom why Roy Keane wasn’t playing in his second finals, particularly when he was the team’s best player and leader.
One of the saddest images of my time covering the fortunes of the Irish team was watching Keane lining out at the old Lansdowne Road before kick-off in an international friendly game against Romania in May 200– two years after passing up the opportunity of playing at a World Cup finals.
In those intervening two seasons, Keane was a shadow of the player who clattered into the back of Marc Overmars on that sunny Saturday afternoon in Dublin and who scored against Portugal.
Brian Kerr, McCarthy’s successor, persuaded Keane to return to the international fold but injuries had clearly taken their toll.
His success at Sunderland, his first managerial posting, was nothing short of incredible.
He took over with the club second from bottom in the Championship. By the end of the season, Sunderland were celebrating promotion to the English Premier League.
He couldn’t work his magic at Ipswich Town and left the club in 2011. Apart from his five years as Republic of Ireland assistant manager and an extremely brief period with O’Neill at Nottingham Forest, it was felt Keane’s vocation would always be in the dug-out.
When Manchester United were ricocheting from one crisis to another, many people felt Keane’s fiery temperament and iron will were exactly what the Old Trafford club needed.
Punditry was seen as a stop-gap gig, until football management would come calling again.
The 53-year-old has probably been sounded out for a thousand manager’s jobs but he’s never taken the plunge – or suitors haven’t taken the plunge with him.
When you look at the constant instability around English football and the hiring and firing culture, maybe Roy Keane was never meant to be a career football manager.
Maybe our abiding image of him should be glancing the ball into Juventus’s net in the Champions League semi-final in Turin in ‘99 or powering his way past the Italians in New Jersey at the ‘94 World Cup or letting Overmars know who was boss in Dublin 23 years ago.
Clubs don’t have patience like they once did and fret at the first sign of a couple of defeats. During the podcast, O’Neill revealed that when Brian Clough became Nottingham Forest manager, he went on a winless run of 18 games.
In today’s game, Clough would have been sacked.
What happened then was Clough went on to win two European Cups and the league - and a managerial legend was formed.
Management is a mug’s game and Roy Keane knows it too.
Podcasts and punditry are probably things he never imagined doing after his playing days.
But it beats jumping from one dug-out to another in the anarchic, insecure world of football management.
