Former Manchester United hard-nosed strongman Roy Keane has emerged as the new favorite to take over as manager of Celtic as the Scottish giants are on the lookout for a new permanent boss after parting ways with Neil Lennon in February, following a sustained dismal run of form.
Celtic have missed out on a historic tenth consecutive title after Steven Gerrard’s Rangers emerged as the division’s top contenders and are still yet to lose a single domestic game all season.
Celtic are now headed for a shake-up and former United skipper Keane is tipped to fill the hotseat, according to the bookmakers, having overtaken current interim boss John Kennedy in the running and is now no better than 4/5 on with any bookmaker, making him a clear favorite.
The Irishman had briefly donned the Celtic shirt during his playing days, making the switch to Scotland after calling time on his Manchester United career after a major falling out with manager Sir Alex Ferguson. However, he went on to make only 10 appearances for the club – scoring once and registering one assist.
Keane has accumulated sufficient managerial experience under his belt, having taken charge with tenures at Ipswich and Sunderland, and was also most recently part of the coaching staff at Aston Villa and former club Nottingham Forest as assistant manager. The hot-headed Irishman has also amassed international experience with Martin O’Neill and the Republic of Ireland.
When asked this week about the prospect of Keane going to Celtic, O’Neill – still a legend at Parkhead – insisted his former second-in-command has all the necessary traits to succeed, telling Go Radio:
“Is Roy Keane managerial material? Absolutely.
“I have worked with him and know him on an assistant basis. He has got an opinion, he knows the game inside out and is a strong, strong character.
“The argument would be then ‘does the modern player feel that he can be comfortable in those surroundings?’ That is a decision for other people to make.
“But absolutely [he can adapt] I think sometimes there is a feeling here that anybody of a certain age or certain vintage has the word dinosaur attached to them.
“Roy has his own methods, it is there when he does his punditry work you can see that is the case. And I think strong characters at a football club would like that sort of management.”