HE insists he isn’t a distraction.
He insists there is nothing he could do about the approach from Celtic at the end of last season and you have to agree with him. He insists his book launch was not a distraction to professional people in the build-up to the Gibraltar and Germany games, and the results suggest he was right.
And he insists his argument with an Irish supporter last week was not a significant issue. Yet all week it made headlines — before Sunday saw him engage in another row, this time with a couple of journalists.
“For someone who says he doesn’t like the limelight, Roy Keane certainly seems to know where the switch is,” said Jason McAteer recently.
And he has a point. While Keane plainly distrusts the media, it is worth remembering that he gladly took a wedge from the Irish Sun to be their columnist while simultaneously holding down a punditry job with ITV.
Did Martin O’Neill know what he was letting himself in for when he named Keane as his assistant? “I’m aware he polarises opinion,” O’Neill said at the time. But did he know that the country is absolutely obsessed with every word the Cork man says?
There are times when we need reminding that Keane is no more than the Irish assistant manager, the same title Marco Tardelli, Liam Brady, Chris Hughton and Ian Evans once held. Yet none of the above generated anywhere near the publicity Keane has.
He is a magnet to the headlines, partially because of the career he had as a player but mainly because he is blunt and forthright. So whereas Martin O’Neill, a month ago, would suggest ‘the benefit of the doubt’ rests with Everton with regard to why James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman missed the October double-header before miraculously recovering to feature for Everton against Aston Villa four days later, Keane says what everyone thinks.
“You always get the impression from Everton that Seamus and James are both barely able to walk,” said Keane.
“So when they actually turn up and they are walking through reception, praise the lord, it’s a miracle!
“Roberto has to look after his club but I don’t think he has ever played senior level at international level and maybe he doesn’t appreciate how big the games are for us.
“I worry that James is under lots of pressure, particularly from Everton’s point of view.”
You could argue Keane is doing his manager a disservice here. By going to war with Everton, he could be doubling the pressure Coleman and McCarthy are already under. Alternatively, he could simply be playing the smart card and calling Martinez’s bluff.
Either way, it generates good copy, and given the pressure the newspaper industry is currently under, it seems churlish for any journalist to criticise a man who delivers thought-provoking and interesting points of view.
Is he a distraction? We can only ask the players. Steven Reid played alongside Keane for Ireland and was in Saipan when it all kicked off between the Cork man and Mick McCarthy.
He was there when Keane returned like a prodigal son and lived through the madness of the Staunton regime. “Distractions? Footballers don’t get distracted,” he wrote in his Irish Independent column “You’d be amazed how single-minded they can be. They are creatures of habit. All they think about is the next game. They just don’t care about the outside world.”
Nor will they care much about Keane unless he is roaring at them. They live in a bubble and all sorts of mayhem could be happening in the hotel lobby and all the players will be focussing on is whether it is chicken or beef on the menu for their evening meal.
Amid all this, a qualification campaign is ongoing and Friday’s result in Glasgow has left Ireland chasing their shadow. They need victories at home now — something they have not achieved since Keane was in his heyday and McAteer was scoring goals against Holland.
Since qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, Ireland have played 30 competitive fixtures at home and won just 13, drawing 11 and losing six. That’s an abysmal record over the last 12 years, especially when you consider who the victories have come against — the Faroe Islands (twice), Georgia (twice), Cyprus (twice), Armenia, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Albania, San Marino and Wales.
The one victory you could be proud of was the 2007 win over Slovakia in Croke Park. Otherwise there have been draws and what-might-have-beens. For O’Neill’s tenure to be a success, he needs to buck that trend. Poland, Scotland and Georgia have to be beaten, Germany have to be held.
It is time the results became a distraction from the Roy Keane show.
