Keano's remaining tight-lipped over the Melbourne job
United legend Roy Keane is set for a return to management with Australian side Melbourne Victory according to a report in the Daily Mail.
While I’m loathe to believe anything that hatred stirring right-wing propaganda rag publishes, if by some miracle there was truth to the story then it would be something of a surprise to say the least.
“Roy Keane is set for a shock return to management with Australian side Melbourne Victory.
“Keane has been out of work since January when he was sacked by Ipswich after his 20 months in charge failed to ignite a Premier League promotion challenge.
“Sportsmail understands the Manchester United and Republic of Ireland legend is currently in Melbourne finalising the details of his contract.”
Melbourne Victory are a club in Australia’s A-league and have led the way in attendances over the years- last season’s average was 15, 234 which although low for the club was still the nation’s highest.
There’s no doubt the climate would be great and it will give Keane a chance to get back to a job he obviously wants to do, but does managing an Australian ‘soccer’ club offer any real career advantages. Even if Keane’s time there is a success, is he likely to be offered a top club job in this country on the back of it? It’s doubtful to say the least.
Although Keane’s time at Ipswich was a disappointment his achievements as a player, as well as his early success at Sunderland, should enable him to find something a tad more challenging than the Australian league.
Personally I’d like to see Keano become a pundit -check out arguably the greatest assessment ever of an England side.
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I’m a United fan living in Wellington, where we have a team (of which I am a season member) that plays in the Australian competition.
While there is no doubt Keano could manage somewhere ‘bigger’, the A-League is improving immensely. Last season was the best year yet, with one team (the Brisbane Roar) being nicknamed Roarcelona for the way they played. They only lost one match all year. There play at times was actually breathtaking.
Guys like Fowler, Juninho and Yorke have all played in the league, and while getting on with age Yorke ended up back playing under Keane at Sunderland. My team, the Phoenix, beat Boca Juniors in a preseason friendly.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it is a good lifestyle, and Keano might get more out of it than people think. The quality is certainly improving, and with my A-League hat on, Keano would be a massive addition to the competition.
One final thing: We call it football down here – it hasn’t been called soccer for quite some time!
Apologies for the ‘soccer’ remark, bang out of order.
As for your points I’m not denying that it may be a good lifestyle I just feel Keane deserves a higher level than he may get in the A-League.
We’ll have to see how it pans out, you may well be right that he gets more out of it than some, myself included, would expect.
Well I support Melbourne and I can say that I don’t want him. His tactical acumen is wanting, and over here he won’t have the advantage of signing the same players/ ex Sunderland players, as he is so fond of doing.
Given that there is a salary cap, he won’t have the option of resorting to cheque-book management – not that that policy was ever very successful at Sunderland.
No thanks.
I was actually inspired by this post and wrote a wee blog myself about Keano’s prospects. Hopefully I’ve got a bit of a unique perspective.
http://kiwifromthecouch.blogspot.com/2011/04/well-im-keane.html
Cheers,
Chief
Keano – great player, poor manager. This is the case for a great many former pros. It is hard to make the transition from great player to great (or even good) manager. There are very few great players that go on to be good managers. And some of the best managers were never very good players – Fergie, Mourinho, Wenger, Busby, Jock Stein, Paisley, Shankly.
Don’t know if I’m out of date here but anyway Roy Keane would be fantastic for the Victory and the A league. True it is hard to be a good manager, but where do you extract experience from? Keane won a promotion first time round with Sunderland & didn’t do a bad job. He may have used what players he knew available during pressurising trasfer windows but Ipswich are still not doing well. Keane was a terrific player and will be a great Manager someday soon. Melbourne would be wise to choose him!