Peterborough United Chairman: Keane is an Excellent pundit, but I wouldn’t hire him as a coach

Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony admits that Roy Keane is an excellent pundit, but he would never hire him to manage the team.

Keane had a glorious career, leading Manchester United to seven Premier League titles and one UEFA Champions League title. Following this, he moved into coaching and was appointed as the manager of Sunderland in 2006.

In his first season, he won the Championship title and led the team back into the Premier League. He left in December 2008, with Ipswich Town later becoming his second club. Keane departed from Ipswich in 2011 and subsequently served as assistant at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.

MacAnthony said, “I enjoy listening to Keane’s punditry on ITV, I like it all, but it just wouldn’t work. I know he did fantastically well at Sunderland, he got them promoted, the team went on a great run, they won the league, and they got into the Premier League.”

“But I think we have to be realistic about this, and sometimes it drives me mad, footballers today are different than ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. Fifteen years ago, you could say something to a player, and there’d be no problem, you’d just slap them, and that player would come to training the next day and perform brilliantly. If you do that kind of thing now with these younger players, I’m not going to call them weak, but they’re a bit sensitive, a bit fragile.”

“I think Roy Keane would strike fear into every player under 23. Our average age is 22, so in two weeks’ time, they’d probably all put in transfer requests, he’d be having a go at them.”

“The money Keane makes as a pundit is probably similar to what he’d make as a coach, which is why he wouldn’t choose to go back into management. He’s a brilliant pundit, a brilliant ex-player, but I’m not sure if he’s a great coach.”