The removal of his keystone will test the core strength of O’Neill’s project

AFTER nine games without a win as manager at Leicester City in 1995, a steward removed a fan heater from the press room in Filbert Street following a draw with Port Vale and quipped: ‘Must be Martin O’Neill’s. It’s the only fan he’s got.’

Roy Keane’s expected departure as O’Neill’s right-hand man won’t just rob the Republic of Ireland manager of his only supporter, a vital prop has been loosened and it’s a damaging blow.

No one foresaw the management pairing being split up before the first Euro 2016 qualifiers had even got under way.

For O’Neill, to lose a run of games of international football can be unfortunate; but to lose your hand-picked assistant without playing a competitive fixture seems careless.

And Keane has not just been an assistant. He has been O’Neill’s strong-arm Mr Motivator on the training ground and in the dressing room, an inspirational presence on a far different level to any previous No 2.

Maybe Keane didn’t twig, but he’s also been the potential heir apparent as Irish manager.

For all his disarming wit and machine-gun one-liners, there is no disguising O’Neill has been wounded by the week’s events.

He took an audacious punt that Keane would work with him; and it paid off. The gamble began to backfire, however, as Keane’s profile soared and antennae twitched in club boardrooms.

The Irish players said positive things about him, so did the media, and ITV ratings shot up when Keane was on camera. It only took four friendly games and around half a dozen training sessions before the former Manchester United midfielder morphed from the forgotten man into a superhero.

If O’Neill found the instant attention bizarre, the fact it has been Celtic who come calling for Keane must have stung at least a little. After all, it was his time in Glasgow which defined his management career.

Had it been any other club, O’Neill could have caused a strop, demanded the Football Association of Ireland man the barricades and tried to head them off at the pass. But not Celtic.

As O’Neill sat alongside Keane in Craven Cottage last night, the argument can be made that the Irish team is perhaps best served with an undisputed skipper on the bridge. Thus far, the story of this management duo has been a 50-50 split about O’Neill and Keane, Keane and O’Neill. At times, the roles seemed blurred.

In terms of media fascination, O’Neill got by in the committee room of the Malahide United clubhouse; Keane required the ballroom of the Grand Hotel.

Perhaps O’Neill would be better served by a loyal coterie of staff, like Seamus McDonagh Steve Walford and Steve Guppy, who keep low profiles and defer to the boss, rather than have Keane’s shadow stalking him.

Deeply intelligent, O’Neill has never lacked self-confidence. It is a trait that is being tested now.

Yet, adversity is nothing new to him, nor is it to newly-appointed Irish managers. Between them, Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy qualified for four major finals and reached three play-offs, spanning eight tournaments from the finals of Euro ’88 through to the 2002 World Cup.

Pointedly, both recovered from stuttering starts at the helm.

The difference now is that O’Neill doesn’t have a tightrope. Charlton wasn’t expected to get Ireland to the Euro ’88 finals, when only eight teams qualified, but somehow he did.

Mick McCarthy was entrusted with stripping down the old Charlton engine and finding new parts. He was told there was no rush. Improbably, he led Ireland to the 1998 World Cup play-offs at the first attempt and very nearly made it to France.

O’Neill doesn’t have such a luxury. He was hired by the FAI with the remit to lead the country to the finals of Euro 2016 for which there are 24 invites.

Should he fail, his appointment as manager will come under the most intense scrutiny.

O’Neill needs to draw deep on the energy, vigour and self-belief which have shaped a successful 25-year management career.

For him, the challenge is to take a leaf from the book of a chief mentor, Brian Clough, and make ordinary players great.

O’Neill must make a motley crew of Irish players better than the sum of their parts. The question now is how much he needed Keane to help him do that.