It's just like the singer/songwriter Morrisey once warbled: Roy's keen, oh, Roy's keen. So keen, he is thought to be looking for a wage increase that would see the Cork man earning £40,000 a week. Whether his request is ambitious brinkmanship or plain greed has yet to be revealed.
His London-based solicitor, Michael Kennedy, was quick to deny the greedy charge this week: "Roy is very happy at Manchester United and he's the captain of the club, the largest in the world. He would like to think he'll be there for the rest of his career, but as with everything else in the current climate he expects to be well rewarded for his remaining years there."
Still, in the past he turned down higher wages and bigger perks for the honour of being with United, suggesting his priorities have shifted. It could be interesting, he has said, if terms are not agreed before his contract with the club expires in 18 months.
Leaving aside the battle of wits still to be played out between the club and its star player, the news allows us to look back at a football fairytale that, in Irish soccer terms, has no parallel.
Once upon a time there was an ordinary working-class family, in ordinary working-class Mayfield, a village on the northside of Cork.
Nine-year-old Roy, an avid soccer fan, was sent to play at the club where the family had long established links. He spent nine happy years with junior club Rockmount, where two of his mother's brothers had played. Although slight - after one trial game for the Under 15 international team he was told he wouldn't be picked again because he was too small - Keane enjoyed a successful schoolboy football career and soaked up the wisdom of his first football mentors, Timmy Murphy and Gene O'Sullivan.
Although scouts came and went, they showed little interest and had he not got an offer of part-time work from Cobh Ramblers when he was 17, his story might have ended there. Included in the offer was an FAI/ FAS football training scheme. It was training he carried out with typical determination and it paid off.
On February 18th, 1990 Noel McCabe, a football scout for Nottingham Forest, watched Belvedere beat Cobh Ramblers 4-0. When half-time came he inquired about the man in the number 10 shirt. It was time for 17-year-old Roy of the Ramblers to move on.
After two trials with Nottingham Forest he was bought for £25,000. Within months - he expected it would take years - he was on the first team and a buzz was beginning to be created about the boy Roy. It was a buzz that didn't go unnoticed by Alex Ferguson, who openly admired Keane's tenacious style of play.
In his recently published book on Irish soccer, The Garrison Game, journalist Dave Hannigan described how as a teenager Keane had written to every club in England seeking a trial. Every team except the revered United. After three seasons with Nottingham Forest, Alex Ferguson paid £3.75 million to bring him to Old Trafford.
Fame, marriage, money and no little madness followed. Keane became an easy target for the media for his aggressive behaviour, on and off the pitch. As one commentator said: "One yellow card for Keane gets more headlines than a dozen telling tackles." There were allegations of slander, an incident where he stamped on another footballer, countless fracas outside Manchester nightclubs and a headbutting incident. He married a girl from Nottingham and his increasing wealth paid for a lavish lifestyle that included a Merc with Roy 1 personalised number plates.
Through it all United fans loved him, for his loyalty and the astonishing talent in midfield that rendered him crucial to the team's success.
Back home it was a different story. Keane's missing 18 out of 22 international matches through injury or Ferguson's unwillingness to release him, was widely blamed for Ireland's failure to qualify for Euro '96. After he didn't turn up for the end-of-season US Cup in June that year, and didn't tell manager Mick McCarthy beforehand, he was booed by Ireland fans at a later match as accusations flew that Keano wasn't doing it for his country. His response at the time was typical: "I don't care what people think."
In the RTE documentary Have Boots Will Travel - Roy, Keane displays a kind of regionalised nationalism that might go some way to explain his apathy. He is from "Cork first and Ireland second" he said in a thoroughly anglicised yet unmistakable Cork accent. He is fiercely proud of his county roots and has expressed the desire to settle there eventually with his wife and two children.
When he does he will spend his evenings in the Temple Acre Tavern, a pub on a hill on Cork's northside and the place where Keane drinks on his regular trips home. One person who spent time with him in the pub described the scene as "unbelievable".
"A million-pound superstar sits down in the corner with his friends and nobody bats an eyelid," he said.
His mother is described as the rock of the family and Keane is devoted to her. Some of his money went on a lavish house outside Cork and rumour has it that when she complained it was too far he bought her driving lessons and a car. In terms of his immediate family he appears to spread his wealth around. So much so that a few years ago his father Mossie earned the nickname Sterling Moss because of the money his son was putting his way.
The media-shy sportsman lives a charmed life in a grand part of Cheshire, an area of England that featured this week in a riveting BBC documentary. Packed with ladies who lunch, stockbrokers and the horsey set, the programme suggested, it is a million miles away from Keane's beloved Mayfield. He lives in a £500,000 mock Tudor mansion and drinks with people who don't know he is a footballer down the local pub.
And things are different these days. Those who know him say Keane is more settled, family-oriented, much calmer. Hell-raising incidents are less frequent. Personalised licence plates are no longer necessary.
In The Garrison Game, Dave Hannigan wrote that for somebody who grew up without too much to spare, money is certainly important to Keane. "But his devotion to Manchester United shows that it has never been the be-all and end-all."
Until now perhaps. Either way Roy Keane will go down in history as one of the greatest Irish footballers who ever lived . . . happily ever after. The End.