Keane a United manager?

Roy Keane, for all the plaudits he’s won as a professional footballer since moving from Nottingham Forest in 1993, is not manager material. Manchester United and the press seems to have this idea that he’s an ideal successor to current manager Alex Ferguson, but I disagree.

It has nothing to do with experience, well not directly. The guy’s too angry. Not that Alex Ferguson is calm, but Ferguson has a history. Keane is off the handle angry, the kind of angry that will quickly turn the modern coddled footballer on him because he’s got no leg to stand on as a manager.

Take a guy like Alan Shearer, he's got a strong personality but is much calmer and more suited to the role. I'd play for Shearer but not for Roy Keane. I wouldn't trust him.

Ferguson has the kind of track record which allows him to get the way he does and get away with it. For Roy Keane, like every other player that tries to turn the same corner, all that playing experience is out the window. Irrational tantrums would lose the player’s confidence. At United, Keane has a manager to reel him in, but as a manger, there is nobody but self control. Players are more likely to accept inexperience with understanding but inexperience coupled with a volcano personality is a recipe for disaster.

In addition, Roy Keane wouldn’t deal with a clubs upper management very well, something that will matter a lot to the ‘new look’ management at United. I get the feeling the Glaze-balls are biding their time until Ferguson leaves before they start making their large scale changes at the club. They need a manager that will comply. Currently, one wrong word from Ferguson could turn the tide quickly.

Carlos Quiroz looks much more a candidate to coach the team after Ferguson. While he’s been (unfairly) derided lately, Quiroz is an excellent coach, and would be more complicit towards the team’s management. Maybe that’s not such a good thing to have, depends on your perspective.