Sad exit for the man who can’t compromise

Dec 5 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

IT wasn’t supposed to end this way. After completing the job of establishing Sunderland as a top half Premier League force, Roy Keane was meant to transfer the knowledge and skills honed on Wearside to Old Trafford and continue the distinguished work of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Now that cosy scenario has been disrupted by Keane walking away from the first serious crisis of his managerial career, a hasty rewrite of the next chapter of his professional career is required.

While Niall Quinn and Steve Bruce both backed him to bounce back into management, it is by no means certain that Keane will be prowling a dug-out again any time soon.

He doesn’t need the money and, judging by his demeanour at times this season, he certainly doesn’t need the hassle of continually risking his reputation. Keane could retire into the background and quite happily immerse himself in family life back in Hale in Cheshire – but don’t expect him to retreat into the television studio anytime soon.

While there will be a great demand for Keane’s intelligent, outspoken and witty views on the state of the national game, he has little time for the hype that surrounds the Premier League and will not add his voice to the din of ex-players and ex-referees who readily pass comment.

But it is difficult to see him retiring entirely from a game that has been his life, and the fierce will to win that has driven him ever since he was offered semi-professional terms by Cobh Ramblers in 1989 will not be satisfied by long walks with Trigger and his other labradors. His professional drive is unlikely to be dimmed by his first taste of managerial failure, and while he will not read the reams of newsprint devoted to his departure Keane will be hurt by the perception that he has been anything less than a success.

There will undoubtedly be Premier League chairman prepared to offer Keane a second chance in management, and his successes at the Stadium of Light warrant that.

But he will not find a chairman or a board as friendly or as faithful as the one he has worked with at Sunderland.

In any future role Keane will have to work with a much smaller budget than the one handed to him by the Drumaville consortium, and it is unlikely that future employers will allow him to take training just twice a week, as was his way at Sunderland.

If he wants to stay in the game, he must do something he has never been prepared to do before – compromise.