Keane handed reins at Ipswich

One crestfallen Northern Irishman out, a combustible Southern Irishman in. Ipswich Town have done away with manager Jim Magilton to furnish a new residence for Roy Keane. Keane, 37, last night signed a two-year contract with a side from English football's second tier. Football seems to be besotted by reincarnations. The second coming of "Cork Boy" was never going to pass off quietly. Ipswich are ushering in a "man's man". Magilton and Keane came across each as sparring midfielders in the 1990s, Magilton with Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday, "Keano" at Manchester United. That is all about all they have in common. The difference in their public profile is about far apart as Cork is from Donegal on the Emerald Isle. As the Mancunian warbler Morrissey once sung: "Roy's Keen." The Ipswich owner Marcus Evans has spent more than £10million (Dh53.7m) since assuming ownership of the Championship club in 2007. Magilton's failure to attain a Premier League play-off place ended his 10-year spell there as a player and coach. Ipswich won the Uefa Cup in the 1980s, but they are not looking back. "A statement of intent" is how their chief executive Simon Clegg described Keane's elevation. Keane has never been short of his own statements, focusing his growl on opponents, his colleagues or the "Prawn Sandwich Brigade" in the United hospitality bunkers. Keane was a thoroughbred player, but is a ticking time bomb of a character, who apparently had some players scurrying about in fear before he quit Sunderland in December. Keane, a figure you detest, or delight in, does not suffer fools gladly, sometimes to his personal detriment. He started under Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, played more than at a decade at United before washing up at Celtic for the final six months of a revered career. Keane walked out on Ireland during the 2002 World Cup after branding the manager Mick McCarthy a "liar" among an array of obscenities. Ipswich fans get to make their own mind up as they become the latest club to be touched by this roaring figure. "There's only one Keano", and he remains a one-off. The Portman Road prawn sandwich eaters have been warned. dkane@thenational.ae

dkane@thenational.ae