YOU WON’T WIN AT CELTIC, ROY... IT’S NOT A TOP JOB
REMEMBER that this has been showbiz from day one. There were factors complicating Roy Keane’s appointment as assistant manager to Martin O’Neill but these were overcome in pursuit of a greater good – and that was not just success for the national team but interest in it as well.
The Ireland brand was tired and unattractive and the management have created interest and no little expectation, just by being themselves. The players have not changed, the shallow pool of useful talent certainly has not deepened but the public started paying attention again.
O’Neill has had some substantial achievements as a manager and Keane’s own career on the sideline has been too quickly reduced to a series of screaming departures fit for nothing but a soap opera. However, as Ireland assistant manager Keane attracts attention, not for his excellence in the role of dutiful No 2, but because of who he is, that amalgam of controversies, achievement and wilfulness.
His first press conference as O’Neill’s deputy was like a Cannes red-carpet show, with cameras clattering and journalists scampering for the best viewing spots. This was show business.
And showbiz is now the industry in which Roy Keane operates. If he is appointed t he manager of Celtic, his nous and his track record will be scrutinised, and his views on playing style and purchases will be sought. But he will be in Glasgow because he is a guaranteed attraction.
Keane helps to fill stadia. Journalists and TV crews from beyond the usual Old Firm beat will be ordered to Parkhead to file reports. In a moribund league which next season will be devoid of even the semblance of a threat to Celtic, Keane would fill the space where interest in Celtic’s opponents should be.
No sooner were Rangers demoted to the fourth tier of Scottish soccer two years ago than the difficulties for the country’s Premier League became clear. It needed Rangers. Celtic needed Rangers. Without their greatest rivals to define themselves against, Celtic were outsized fish in a small, stagnant pond.
Fans could only watch turkeyshoots against hapless opposition for so long. In 1998 Parkhead was redeveloped and became a ground with a capacity of 60,000. For some home matches last season, it was estimated that the place was less than half full, which meant thousands of supporters who had paid for season tickets were not bothering to show up.
It could just get worse next season, with Hearts and Hibs both joining Rangers in the Championship. One Scottish newspaper calculated the average attendances for the 12 clubs who will comprise the Premier League next season, and the clubs who will be in the Championship. There was a difference of less than 500, and so it is not wildly improbable that the second level of the Scottish game will be more popular than its premier tier in the next campaign. Interestingly, the deadline for Celtic’s season ticket renewals expired last Friday evening, when the speculation was at its most frenzied.
That should be the context in which the Keane connection is viewed. Celtic fans will not be entertained by much in the way of threatening domestic visitors for the next 12 months, and so the entertainment must come from within.
This is where Keane is attractive. He has a link with the club having spent an undistinguished six months playing there, but he has spoken of a more enduring passion, having supported Celtic as a boy. Putting an Irishman in charge is no harm, either, what with the historic and still-powerful sentimental links between this country and the club.
Keane as manager makes sense if Celtic are interested in keeping their profile high during a season that will have little in the way of domestic diversion.
The attractions for a grown man must go beyond boyhood crushes (otherwise it is still acceptable to believe Fidelma from Glenroe is The One). Any man worth his salt wants to prove he can succeed in his field, and Keane is doubtlessly itching to test his talents after the abject end to his time at Ipswich.
Celtic are quite an institution, too. They cannot be regarded as a major club if contending for the biggest prizes in the game is the definition. They are, though, a potent brand and it is easy to imagine full houses with Keane in t he dugout.
He might also wonder if this is as good as it is going to get. No matter what he achieves at Celtic, he will not be sought out the next time Arsenal or Chelsea go looking for a manager. Neil Lennon, an undoubted success at Celtic, is linked to low-flying English Premier League clubs like West Brom and to teams a league lower, too.
THE GREATEST test for the next Celtic manager will be in Europe, and qualifying for the Champions’ League group stages must be an imperative given the boost these games give to attendances. However, that requires winning qualifying ties that start in the middle of July, meaning the new manager’s first matches, after little preparation time, would be his most important of the season.
Celtic is not a top-level job in British management but the appeal for Keane is not a mystery. There is no treachery or betrayal in wanting to better oneself, and those screaming about Saipan are fighting battles long over. Keane is not a traitor. He is not a proven successful manager, either, so the reasons for Celtic’s interest must lie elsewhere.
They lie in showbiz. Keane has struggled as a manager but he is a guaranteed headline-maker. He has been a rolling news story at Ireland and he would be one in Glasgow as well. Talent is only a part of this story. There was a time when such a state of affairs might have offended Keane.