From The Independent:
Well now, and amazingly, Keane is doing friendlies again. Only twice in the past decade has he deigned to do so away from Ireland's shores but, aged 32, he will take to the field this Wednesday in a little-known town 150 miles north of the Polish capital, Warsaw. It is the kind of otherwise meaningless fixture - location, opponent, timing - that would have had him shaking with rage not so long again. But with his return much has changed.
Not least the place where the squad will gather. Gone is the grim if convenient airport hotel. Brian Kerr, McCarthy's successor, has insisted on providing some of the five-star luxury that Keane complained was so often lacking. Portmarnock, the imposing former home of the Jameson whiskey family, fits the bill. And when the team travel to Bydgoszcz tomorrow they will do so in a plane which has had seats removed to provide more leg-room. "Roy Class", they call it.
After Keane's departure two years ago the Football Association of Ireland commissioned an investigation into how the team prepared. The report vindicated Keane's complaints about the lack of organisation. Under Kerr, training, travel, medical care, nutrition, technical analysis and even entertainment has improved. To be fair to McCarthy, many of the changes were already under way, but the FAI's new chief executive, Fran Rooney, has stridently claimed credit.
Perversely, just three weeks ago several Irish players complained off the record that the preparations were too taxing. As such, Keane's return is a significant endorsement of Kerr's style. Tellingly, the malcontents all came from the rump of McCarthy's squad. Indeed there are many new faces, which partly explains the excited response to Keane's decision. Nine players who will travel to Poland were not in Saipan. Their memories of Keane are not sullied.
Some players don't want to comment, treating the subject as if it were a ticking bomb. Some, including two of the biggest names, are unhappy, while Jason McAteer - no Keane fan - has kept his counsel, as have Kevin Kilbane and Gary Breen. It is going to be something that Keane - and Kerr - will have to negotiate. Both are sanguine. Keane, however, has questioned the role of Packie Bonner, the FAI's technical director and an apparent enemy.
But the other main protagonists have gone. Steve Staunton, Niall Quinn and Alan Kelly, the three players at the press conference called following Keane's departure, have retired. Gary Kelly, who made an impassioned plea to back McCarthy, has also gone, as has Dean Kiely, one of the three goalkeepers Keane stupidly complained weren't training hard enough. Kiely is one of the few prepared to voice his anger. "It was a little hollow and in quite bad taste afterwards to see all the parties giving exclusive stories and their side, and basically making lots of money in the process," he says.
In general, most have adopted an air of bland diplomacy. Quinn, for example, says simply: "I'm 100 per cent behind Roy and the team to get to the World Cup. There's no point in looking back. He's a wonderful player."
That much, at least, is not in dispute. After his acrimonious exit, the thing that bothered Keane the most was his sense that all of the good times counted for so little. For that reason alone he will do his utmost to prevent a repeat.
O'Shea obviously wants him back:
"He will be just as important to Ireland as he is to Manchester United, particularly in midfield where we have a few young, talented lads.
"The likes of Andy Reid, Liam Miller, Stephen Reid and, when he is fit, Colin Healy will have the chance to pick up so much experience. When you learn from Roy Keane, you are learning from the best in the business."