Will Roy"s style Suffolk-ate the Tractor Boys?

There have been many disturbing images shown on our television screens in recent years. However, being a devotee of the classic Bill Shankly line that '…football is more important than life and death…' etc, the single image which sets my blood boiling the most dates back to 2002. A certain Roy Keane is walking Triggs (the world"s best known dog until Bo made his way recently to the White House), while thousands of his fellow-Irishmen descended on Japan and South Korea. Em, to watch Keane playing for the country he allegedly captained.Well as every dog in the street knows, Triggs has a new home now for two years (I wonder, I just wonder?) with his faithful master having taken over at Ipswich Town. Let me get the usual stuff out of the way. One, Keane was a magnificent player. Two, Mick McCarthy (well done on Wolves" Premier League promotion to that most loyal of Irishmen) utterly misread the relevant page in his "How to Handle Spoiled and Troublesome Children" booklet at the infamous Saipan barbecue. Another Irishman to the core, Niall Quinn was prepared to advance his serious claims for a Nobel Prize for Peace by forgiving the unforgivable (it"s my column and hence my line!) and appointing Keane as manager at the Stadium of Light. But I just wonder do Ipswich moneybags owner, Marcus Evans and Chief Executive, Simon Clegg know what they have let themselves in for by appointing the Mayfield Maverick to the Portman Road hot seat? Despite the tens of thousands of column inches devoted to Keane over the years, I suspect not.Keane will certainly bring a buzz to a hitherto low-profile club, well certainly fairly low-profile since the heady days of Alf Ramsey"s league title-winning heroics in the early 1960s and Bobby Robson"s FA Cup and UEFA Cup champion sides almost two decades later. Both these great football men went on to manage England, achieving their best ever World Cup placings (winners, 1966 and semi-finalists, 1990) on the way to being tapped on the shoulder by Queen Elizabeth"s sword. (I have to confess that mention of "sword" and "Roy Keane" in the same sentence conjures up images for me of morbidly curious work colleagues" visits to the so-called "Headchop Square" every Friday in Riyadh!). Would even Jimmy Magee be able to list the other Blues" managers over the years? Jackie Milburn (a former player of greatrepute) and Bill McGarry (a decent manager, whose best work was done at Molineux) plugged the gap between Sir Alf and Sir Bobby. Since the latter left Portman Road, the bainisteoir"s bib has been worn with no major silverware to boast of by Bobby Ferguson, Johnny Duncan, John Lyall, George Burley, Joe Royle and, of course, Jim Magilton, the latest manager to be thrown on the dole while another man is being lined up in secret. A few reasonable bosses, but no real managerial megastar in that lot.Incidentally, with only two managers pre-Ramsey, Keane is only the Town"s 13th ever boss - so they don"t like the idea of fly-by-night managers, Roy.Other than a buzz and therefore the very necessary bums on seats and replica jerseys on backs (including, no doubt, many Keane devotees and other naïve individuals on this side of the Irish Sea), what will the Saipan Sulker bring to Ipswich Town? A proven record of getting a club into the Premier League, for which he is entitled to great credit with Sunderland. However, his profligacy with Charlie"s cheque book must Chawke him down as less than shrewd in the transfer market. Remember Eamonn Sweeney"s classic line in a leading Irish newspaper? 'Roy Keane"s greatest achievement at Sunderland was to assemble the most talentless bunch of Irishmen since Boyzone first appeared on the Late Late Show!'One can only assume that behind the Tommy Tiernan-like beard (and the great Paul McGrath reckons that Roy is actually a humorous chap socially) and brooding exterior, lies a man who frightens players and staff. It is hard not to imagine but that some imperfect human being somewhere in Suffolk will irritate the perfectionist in Keane. There will be no players with his own sensational engine or on-field motivational qualities playing for Ipswich Town next season. There will be more and more prawn sandwich eaters in the stands. There will be some degree of accountability to Mr Evans (how annoying it will be to hear, ad nauseam, about 'Roy Keane"s Ipswich' as if he owned the club). Keane will need to accept these facts or another walk-out will be forthcoming. Because as his one-time Irish midfield partner, Mattie Holland wrote a few years ago: 'Roy lives in Roy Keane"s world and refuses to accept other people"s autonomy or opinions.'The reminders of how Roy Keane divided a nation are still with us. Only last week I saw a clip of an interview with former Taoiseach and renowned sports fanatic, Bertie Ahern. In it, he spoke of seeing two men in their mid-60s squaring up to each other at a retirement party when they got embroiled in an alcohol-fuelled argument about the Keane/McCarthy saga. The so-called "R and R" period in Saipan became a "Roy and recrimination" time.A leading soccer journalist clearly had the likes of Keane (or is he truly unique?) in mind when he wrote: 'Beware the men whose talents are driven by rage. These people are not in control of their own art, their own selves, their own lives.'Maybe some day Roy will apologise for letting down so many by his selfish actions seven years ago. Until then, those of us without Niall Quinn"s yearning for the Nobel Peace Prize find it hard to wish Keane the success that his pre-Saipan efforts in the emerald green jersey would have deserved. Instead, we think of him in the dark green tee-shirt with the white collar and talking to Tommie Gorman in Lancashire, while loyal Irish players did their very best at the World Cup.We don"t all lick as easily as Triggs, Roy.