Is he talking about being in Adrian Chiles’ company?
In one of the latest fascinating stories revealed during the ongoing ‘KeaneBookLeakedBeforeItWasSupposedToBeReleasedGate’, the Daily Star have reported that Roy had “no purpose in life” before Martin O’Neill appointed him assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland team.
Sure, we all had a laugh at the notion of Schmeichel thinking he had a chance in a brawl against Keano, everyone had an even bigger laugh at Alf-Inge Haaland’s inspired beard-themed response to the Corkman, and we’d be lying if we didn’t say we had completely p*ssed our pants picturing John O’Shea requiring medical treatment after playing against Ronaldo.
This latest revelation, however, points to a darker time in Keane’s life…
Long day on @IrishStarSport yesterday digesting the Keano leaks. Here’s today’s back page pic.twitter.com/bRWAcQqJY7
— Brian Flanagan (@BHDFlanagan) October 7, 2014
The two men are currently overseeing the Irish squad’s preparations at Malahide ahead of the European Qualifying match against Gibraltar on Saturday and there’s no doubt, in spite of everybody pretending that they’re not interested in what’s going on, some of the talk will most certainly be about the Keano revelations.
In another story reported by The Irish Independent, Keane reveals that he was on the verge of leaving the Irish setup to take over at Celtic, but they “didn’t show that they wanted him enough.”
Keane writes in his book ‘The Second Half’, “Celtic wanted me but they weren’t showing how much they wanted me… The fact I had spoken to Dermot Desmond had become public knowledge… and a few things had been leaked — as usual.
“I was delighted. It was a massive compliment. Over the years, I had always said: ‘If you’re offered the Celtic job, you don’t turn it down’… I got in touch with Celtic’s chief executive, Peter Lawwell and asked him to give me a ballpark figure before negotiations got going. He mentioned a figure and he said: ‘But that’s it’. Paul told me there were a lot of clauses in the contract that he wasn’t happy with. And the figures were non-negotiable.
“I felt they wanted me but they weren’t showing how much they wanted me. They weren’t convincing me: ‘Listen, you’re the man for us’. Had Celtic shown enough in their negotiating, ‘we’ll move this, you can take that’ — a bit of give and take — I might have hesitated.
“They just didn’t show me that they wanted me and I was happier staying in the Ireland job. Working with Martin had given me back a love of the game and I’m all for showing a bit of loyalty.
“I felt powerful saying: ‘No’. I felt good. But I wondered if I was making the right decision.
“Right job, wrong time.”
Watch this space as we’re sure there’ll be plenty more of revelations to come over the next few days…
