Roy Keane has re-emerged as a Celtic managerial candidate, according to Football Insider. The report claims that the former Celtic and Manchester United midfielder is being considered as an alternative to Eddie Howe after the pursuit for the 43-year-old has appeared to go cold.
Keane is said to be a candidate owing to his perception for firing players up, something that in the wake of this season is evident. However, it appears that Howe is still the club’s preferred candidate – even if the talk of the ex-Bournemouth boss has died down in recent weeks.
Dominic McKay is only a few days into the job and he will no doubt be calculating when and who is best to appoint as the next manager as season ticket renewals near. There is a lot of unknowns but the reality is that a lot of people will not renew unless the club match the ambitions of the support – something that since Brendan Rodgers left, has been massively lacking.
The 49-year-old Irishman has been widely linked with the vacancy despite not having held the position of manager in over a decade. The Ireland legend has been Assistant to Martin O’Neill with Ireland and Nottingham Forest but this doesn’t bother Hartson, who believes that Keane will be able to galvanise this group of players and regain the Premiership title
Keane made just 13 appearances for Celtic, scoring once before he was forced to retire. Keane would help Celtic complete a double that season with the League Cup and League, his last as a player. The outspoken Sky Sports pundit has a good relationship with Dermot Desmond and Desmond wanted him to become Neil Lennon’s replacement in 2014 but no deal transpired.
At this stage, I would accept Keane. I’m not totally sold on Howe, mainly due to the length of time it’s taking to confirm if he has even said the word yes to starting at some point. If we did end up with Keane, maybe bring in Damian Duff again and another couple of good coaches while he does the ‘motivational’ pre match team talks. That actually might even work. Harkin and him would get on fine too and we’d have a system in place if we changed manager in a few years. If it’s Howe, that’s fine too. But at this late stage, it’s bound to be one or the other. I’d hope we see an appointment by month’s end, at least DoF if not that and manager. But I’m not holding my breath