KEANE ALL SET TO RETIRE
You can bet Keane will be jacking international football in if this comes true. From the Guardian:
Kenny Dalglish has emerged as the favourite to succeed Mick McCarthy as the Republic of Ireland manager.
The Football Association of Ireland is to instigate talks with Dalglish, who has made his interest clear through intermediaries. But the disclosure that he is now high on the FAI's shortlist - originally incorporating John Toshack and David O'Leary but now with Bryan Robson as the only other preferred option - will divide a nation clamouring for Keane's return.
As one of the most famous players in Celtic's history Dalglish is revered throughout the Republic, but nowhere near as much as Keane and there would be serious reservations about whether the former Liverpool, Blackburn and Newcastle manager would be able to lure him back. Or, indeed, if he would have the inclination.
They have remained on bad terms ever since Keane, then a Nottingham Forest player, gave his word to Dalglish nine years ago that he would sign for Blackburn only for Sir Alex Ferguson to coax him to Manchester United instead.
Dalglish now works as a consultant for Proactive, whose owner Paul Stretford said last night: "Kenny has not asked me to represent him but I am aware of this matter."
Meanwhile Keane has been praised in the report looking into Ireland's World Cup shambles:
"Roy Keane is a consummate professional, obsessed with excellence and attention to detail," the report says.
"He possibly felt he should not have gone to the World Cup at all - he had a bad feeling in advance and was carrying a long-term hip injury. Such driven professionalism can be intimidating to many around him, making him a loner, often isolated from the squad.
"He is a perfectionist whose standards of fitness, ambition and self belief others would do well to follow. He is also a paradox, on the one hand the ultimate professional and on the other likely to respond and react in the most unpredictable way.
"Any concerns or ill feeling he may have had would have been reinforced by what happened from the moment the squad arrived at Dublin airport prior to going to Saipan.
"He believed he had made a genuine attempt to get management focused in 1999 in a meeting with Mick McCarthy. He and others felt the FAI's organisation had gone backwards, not forward, since that meeting, feelings reinforced by events during the qualifying campaign."
Who will end up managing Ireland? Follow the link to Blue Square and have a free £10 bet:
Peter Reid 7/4
Bryan Robson 11/4
John Aldridge 5/1
Ronnie Whelan 7/1
Kenny Dalglish 10/1
Joe Kinnear 12/1
Wim Jansen 16/1
Frank Rijkaard 16/1
Niall Quinn 20/1
Brian Kerr 25/1
George Burley 33/1
Roy Hodgson 33/1
Martin O'Neill 33/1
Don Givens 33/1
Liam Brady 40/1
George Graham 40/1
Ray Houghton 50/1
Roy Keane 66/1
Bryan Robson 11/4
John Aldridge 5/1
Ronnie Whelan 7/1
Kenny Dalglish 10/1
Joe Kinnear 12/1
Wim Jansen 16/1
Frank Rijkaard 16/1
Niall Quinn 20/1
Brian Kerr 25/1
George Burley 33/1
Roy Hodgson 33/1
Martin O'Neill 33/1
Don Givens 33/1
Liam Brady 40/1
George Graham 40/1
Ray Houghton 50/1
Roy Keane 66/1