THE TROUBLE WITH ROY...
Regardless of his value in the assistant’s role, the Corkman needs reminding of its boundaries for the good of all concerned
Why sheriff Martin needs to get to grips with his mercurial deputy
ROY KEANE insists he knows his boundaries as Ireland assistant manager although, as yet, they remain unmarked. Either way, one suspects, he always charts his own territory. Take last Sunday, for example. It was a crisp, clear, morning in Portmarnock when he stepped up to the plate at the Irish team hotel for his fifth, and final, press briefing of 2014 on Ireland duty.
The previous four, on March 4, May 25, September 4, and October 12 had all given value for money for attending media. After all, there’s no show like a Roy show. But this was the golden ticket as he put the boot into Everton, Jack Grealish, Uncle Tom Cobley... He hit them all. Hard.
He flared up (again) when Sportsmail raised the issue of his headline-grabbing events in the past six months – Celtic, Aston Villa, his book, and his much-publicised hotel spat with Frank Gillespie, an acquaintance from beer-swilling days under Big Jack. Asked if he felt the incidents, collectively, were a distraction to Ireland manager Martin O’Neill, he couldn’t contain himself.
By his proven Vesuvian scale, it was a middling eruption of self-justification. There have been worse. The angry reflex was just his way. Whenever challenged, he comes out fighting; he always has done. The outburst lasted several minutes but, when it subsided, that was it. Journalists had their copy and Keane had vented some spleen.
That he was on duty for a Sunday sermon was curious. He had been scheduled to fill in for O’Neill the previous Wednesday – only hours before the hotel hassle with Gillespie.
Instead, O’Neill did the media briefing, a fourth successive day on the plinth, which was unusual, but freed Keane for Sunday service. Perhaps the FAI felt he might make the public more aware of the USA game and help push tickets. That the Association subsequently stuck to the plan, with all his negative spin-offs and knowing the Gillespie spat would be revisited, seemed bizarre.
For all the chin-wagging among the Fourth Estate, it was Keane’s attack on Everton, and withering put-down of both Jack Grealish’s dithering, and his Dad, which inflicted most damage on the man he serves – O’Neill.
Ahead of vital home qualifiers next March 29 and June 13 with Poland and Scotland respectively, O’Neill will be desperate to have all his best players fit and available. Three of his first choice XI, Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, and Aiden McGeady, play for Everton, the club his assistant maligned.
Inflammatory comments accusing Everton of exerting pressure on players around internationals, irked the hierarchy of a club with a deep Irish affinity. Chairman Bill Kenwright pooh-poohed Keane for ‘saying some stupid things while manager Roberto Martinez felt the remarks were ‘nonsense’.
The former Ireland midfielder isn't the type to lose any sleep over their replies but O’Neill can’t afford to fall out with Everton and has been left with some bridge-building to do. For example Fo should Everton, as is quite likely, react the last 16 of the Europa League on March 12 and 19, Martinez won't give two hoots about Ireland’s upcoming qualifier against Poland.
He’ll be pushing his players to the limit with a view to the quarter-finals on April 16 and 23. If Martinez feels some of his Ireland players will be better off at Finch Farm resting up for a week, he may not think twice about withdrawing them, especially not now.
That would leave Ireland up a Euro 2016 creek. Keane knows club managers, by and large, are indifferent to international demands. At Manchester United, he played under one, Alex Ferguson, and was also a manager himself. For international coaches to stay on the right side of club managers requires tact and, on occasion, some glad-handling PR – not always Keane’s strong points.
O’Neill, who has grasped how these things work after a year in the job, has four months to smoke the peace pipe at Everton, and to reassure the Grealish family that the welcome mat is still in place. It’s an extra work-load he could do without, and it’s all due to the bluntness of his assistant which, in many ways and on most occasions, is welcome.
Publicly at least, O’Neill is firmly supporting his right-hand man, something he’s been asked to do more than once in 2014, even if the nature of such relationships is that it should be the other way around. Within the FAI hierarchy, there are rumblings, too, about the repeated distractions. Keane, though, is not the FAI’s worry; he is O’Neill’s.
AND, AS long the manager feels there is a worth to his presence (the players have apparently bought into what Keane brings to the training ground and to match days), he will stay on board. As assistants go, no one in these islands comes close to matching his profile.
Take a straw poll of football fans asked to name the assistant manager of the five national teams and you can bet that everyone would know Keane over Ray Lewington, Mark McGhee, Kit Symons or Jim Magilton.
By nature, the assistants keep out of the spotlight, and generally act as a sounding board for the manager.
When Keane first broke into the Ireland squad, for instance, the brooding figure of Maurice Setters was the longestablished Jack Charlton sidekick. Setters was mostly seen, not heard, as were his successors, Taff Evans, Chris Hughton and Marco Tardelli.
He respects O’Neill as a person but his candid comments, unwittingly perhaps, have displayed a lack of regard for O’Neill’s position on the bridge.
As the SS Ireland enters Euro 2016 waters bristling with dangerous bergs, O’Neill is peering for a route through the ice.
The manager needs Keane by his shoulder, strong, supportive and silent, as it should be. You never hear a public word from him at Villa.
Steady, as she goes.