Keane’s edge is begining to spill over on O’neill

Manager O’neill’s influence on the squad is being diminished by his controversial assistant

MARLON BRANDO showed up to film Apocalypse Now grossly overweight. He had not read Heart of Darkness, the novel on which the film was based, and he spent weeks on set in the Philippines arguing with director Francis Ford Coppola about the production.

One morning, Brando suddenly appeared on set with his head shaved, his attitude changed and ready to deliver one of the most memorable performances in film history. Coppola later discovered that Brando had only read the novel the night before, but had threatened the entire shoot with his difficult nature and the controversy that clung to him like a fog. Coppola kept quiet, persevered with his star and the turmoil was eventually worth it.

It is a delicate and potentially chaotic game to play. Stars are worth the indulgence only when they bring results. Hassle has to earn a pay-off, and when it does not, stern questions are inevitable.

After 48 hours of chaos, the Ireland team could have reduced the latest Roy Keane controversy to one more tale had they played well and brought a result out of Celtic Park with them. Instead, they performed terribly and Keane’s most recent tumble into the headlines is now a part of the aftermath.

Steven Reid was one of the former players who were adamant the incident at the team hotel on Wednesday evening would not affect the team. But Ireland are not just about the players; given the technical limitations of the group, it is not even mostly about them.

The most important moving part in the Irish machine is Martin O’Neill – and we know this farcical situation affected him. The day before the match, he was required to make a video statement that looked like an outtake from the Blair Witch Project.

It is easy to see why the FAI supposed a video would be more powerful than written support of Keane, but it resulted in a stark clip that, through its timing and the manager’s deadly serious delivery fed the controversy.

To suggest, then, that O’Neill was not affected by his assistant’s travails is implausible. International managers talk of the need to wring every spare moment from their players when they gather them into a squad. Time is short and as much work as possible is packed into every day, on and off the training fields.

On Thursday morning, O’Neill had to stop thinking about Gordon Strachan and his players and defend Keane in a video that should leave the Ireland assistant absolutely mortified – at the very least.

Even if he did nothing wrong on Wednesday, if he was provoked and did nothing more than verbally protest, if he is as pure as the driven snow, he should still have burned crimson with embarrassment. At this level of competition, there is no excuse for bringing that kind of distraction into an ambitious environment.

BUT THAT is only the start of the problem. The book promotion incendiaries accompanied preparations for the trip to Germany, but John O’Shea’s late goal and a valiant point filched from the world champions excused the clamour that surrounded the build-up.

Like Brando wowing the world as Colonel Kurtz, results justified everything. They always do. After a defeat in Scotland that was marked by Ireland’s particular weaknesses in central midfield – Keane’s area of undoubted expertise – the converse is now baldly true. Failure demands forensic analysis and CSI are not required to uncover the Keane imbroglio as evidence of disruption.

The consequence of that is important: all of the doubts and reserva- tions about Keane as part of this set-up, dammed up by results so far, have flooded back. One question echoes: why did O’Neill choose Keane as his assistant?

The pair knew each other through punditry work with ITV, and Keane reveals in his book that he thought O’Neill could make contact when he was appointed to succeed Giovanni Trapattoni. They had formed a respectful relationship across a TV studio, but one doubt stubbornly lingers: O’Neill might not have realised just how big a deal Roy Keane is here.

O’Neill’s career has been spent in Britain, where Keane was a controversial star as captain of the world’s biggest club. But that description does not capture his fame in Ireland. He is the most famous and divisive figure in Irish life. He enthrals and angers and fascinates people. He is the Monday in every week.

A year ago, O’Neill was asked about this at his first press conference as the manager of Ireland. ‘I think he will be brilliant for the Republic of Ireland and I will want him basically the way he is,’ he said then. ‘His thirst for knowledge is amazing. A little bit of volatility will do no one any harm.’

Those words read like a taunt this morning. One deep frustration for O’Neill must be the way Keane’s controversies obscure his effect on the group. The players speak about him with a uniform enthusiasm, and it is easy to imagine the effect he could have on a player like Jeff Hendrick. But Hendrick was one of the midfielders stretched out of all shape and usefulness by a quicker, more tactically and technically adept Scottish unit on Friday.

Ireland’s tactics were naïve and invited submersion in midfield. Keane’s most visible impact on the Ireland camp on this evidence was in yet another sideshow.

He is an interesting man, more complex and considered than many are prepared to recognise. But the country is full of smart thinkers. Intelligence is not enough, and nor is a gilded playing record. Different qualities should coalesce in a talented coach, and a useful one is understatement.

O’Neill is the front-of-house man, but he has been overshadowed time and time again by the man he asked to help him. So comes the next question: can this relationship last?

The manager said before this match that 2015 would decide Ireland’s fate, and the home games especially. Four of the next five qualifiers are in Dublin, a message O’Neill repeated as Celtic Park emptied, tens of thousands of Scottish supporters bringing their jubilation with them.

Ireland’s fate remains theirs to decide, but that cannot obviate the need to tackle the Keane conundrum. The reason is the next time. There will be one. There is nothing surer.

KEANE could keep quiet, have his hands in his pockets and his mouth shut for the next 12 months, but he is such a big and emotive figure that he will attract attention, some of it from cranks, some from troublemakers, some from the curious and some from the devoted.

That will always be there, and with it comes the potential for more trouble. His presence is like dry straw in a drought; one careless spark is all it takes.

Expect O’Neill to stick by him. He values him and even if he was having doubts, he will know that removing Keane would create a storm to surpass anything we have endured yet. And Keane has also vowed that if his duties with Aston Villa crowd in on his Ireland responsibilities, he will quit the Premier League club.

He is dedicated to Ireland, O’Neill is committed to him. It sounds so simple, but it’s a complication verging on a mess.

Ireland are in danger of drifting deeper into this heart of darkness.

Even if he did nothing wrong, he should still have burned crimson with embarrassment