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Sports News
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 One more year: Keane is sticking with Celtic
Monday, 8th May 2006
ROY KEANE will not go gentle. As he prepares to return to Old Trafford for the first time since his explosive departure last year, Keane is ready to delight the 25,000 Celtic fans who will occupy one end of the stadium on Tuesday night by playing on in Glasgow for another year.
"Providing his body can stand it, Roy will play on for another season," a source close to the player revealed last night.
Despite securing an SPL winner's medal, Keane has not had the most productive season, suffering first at the hands of Clyde who knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and then picking up another injury. But now he is ready to end the speculation surrounding his future and play for one more season. In March he had suggested that he would retire at the end of the season, hinting that he would take time out from football for a couple of years to pursue other interests.
"You have to do what you think is right and not get sucked into playing in another Champions League or stuff like that. You have got to be fair. I've learned a lot more in the last few months than I have learned in my entire career in terms of what way I want to go and what is right for me," he said in Dublin last March.
But Keane may be about to have a characteristic change of heart. "Roy wants to play in Europe one more time and Celtic are in Europe," said a friend, although the toll on his body may ultimately end up making the decision. "Roy lives from game to game, but he wants to play on." Keane was known to have had difficulties with the commute from Manchester to Scotland and he chose to live in an Edinburgh hotel rather than subject himself to the intensity of Glaswegian life.
But he now has an apartment in the city which should provide him and his family with a base if he pursues his latest ambition and plays in next season's Champions League with Celtic.
Rumours have persisted that Gordon Strachan did not want him at the club, always denied by the manager, but Strachan may be relieved if a ready-made successor vacates the premises sooner rather than later.
Keane was eager to sign for only six months when he joined Celtic, with a view to considering his options in the summer, but the fact that he has taken an apartment quite recently suggests that he has decided on a longer stay.
The decision to play on will thwart the ambitions of several English clubs to offer him management positions, with rumours persisting in Sunderland that he is a candidate for that job.
Keane was offered one Premiership management job when he left United, but decided to continue with his playing career and now it appears he will have one last attempt at fulfilment on that front.
Keane's Champions League career with United was unsatisfactory, missing out on their only final appearance in 1999 through suspension. He may not reach a final with Celtic, but Keane retains enough of the old warrior instinct to believe it is possible. Celtic will have ambitions too, at least to reach the group stage after their defeat to Artmedia Bratislava in the second qualifying round last summer. Without Keane, United struggled in the competition as his departure affected the players in the winter months.
His relationship with Alex Ferguson was said to have deteriorated, but United's manager has written a piece for Tuesday's programme which was described as "remarkable" by a friend of Keane's.
With 16,000 Irish fans among the crowd, the match between Keane's old and new is a 68,000 sell-out which will produce record gate receipts for a testimonial. Keane will decide which of a number of charities will benefit at a later date, but he is eager to do so privately and with little fuss.
It will be a different matter on Tuesday when he is lauded to the rooftops. Keane may be embarrassed by the attention, but the United fans will be eager to praise the man who defined Alex Ferguson's ethos on the football pitch.
His departure was so swift - his last game was when he hobbled off at Anfield in September - the fallout so severe, that there was never a chance to acknowledge the player Ferguson insisted was the greatest he had worked with.
There will be no sceptics in the crowd on Tuesday night. For one half Keane will play for Celtic and he will be an opponent, something he never wanted to do at Old Trafford, something he never wanted to do against Manchester United.
But for the second half, he will again wear the red of Manchester United. And he will receive the praise he deserves.
Story provided courtesy of Unison.ie
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