O’Neill won’t be drawn out about Roy Keane’s new book

Perhaps it was the thought that he might one day wind up being on the receiving end himself in volume three (Extra Time?), but Martin O'Neill opted to sit out The Second Half in Malahide yesterday, feigning ignorance with regard to the contents, controversies and, most implausibly, release date, either real or intended, of Roy Keane's second autobiography.

The Republic of Ireland manager has said often enough that he had a pretty good idea what he was getting into when he asked Keane to be his assistant, but even he can't have had this in mind.

His team has one campaign win from one and two qualifiers to come over the next week, one against the World Champions, and yet the football was almost an afterthought at his first media update since arriving back into Dublin.

O’Neill does a strong line in straight-faced humour, but it must have taken a bit of time in front of the mirror to stand pitch side yesterday and say that none of this is in any way a distraction without completely cracking up.

Shining through

The Northerner batted away one question after another regarding the men his assistant portrays as villains in his new book, but then dismissed the notion too that he was in some way a hero for having recruited the Corkman back into football at a time, the former Manchester United star suggests, when he had “no purpose in his life”.

“I’d spoken to him at CL [Champions League] games and not seen that at all,” said O’Neill. “I thought his love of football was shining through, he wanted to talk about the game, not so much about his own experiences as a player, really to do with management.

“I’m not party to his inner-most thoughts but there were other people around us, like Andy Townsend, who’d say the same thing; that Roy’s love of the game hadn’t diminished.”

Keane, of course, had been out of the game for a long time at that stage, having been shown the door by Ipswich more than two years previously, and says in the book that he had “lost track of why I loved the game”.

O’Neill suggested that the two were almost certainly linked, observing with a grin: “Maybe people wanted to stay clear of him. Now that he is with us, he’s getting offers every day.”

The 43-year-old Keane suggests he came pretty close to accepting the one that caused the biggest stir, Celtic, with the club's various conditions and lack of flexibility over the terms on which he could take it, chief amongst the reasons he turned it down in the end .

Botched release

His wife, he reveals, had cautioned against the move, saying that he looked happy again now that he was working as O’Neill’s assistant and questioning why he would want to give that up.

However, the fact that Celtic were dictating who would be his assistant appears to have played at least as big a part in making the former midfielder’s mind up for him.

O'Neill seemed to enjoy the pitch-side pantomime for a while, expressing mannered shock at the botched release of the book and even asking when it was coming out, but there was a sense of relief too when matters moved on to his squad and its preparations for the games against Gibraltar and Germany.

All 25 players due in had reported and trained, he confirmed, although Jeff Hendrick is still struggling slightly with the aftermath of a shoulder injury that had sidelined him over the last few weeks.

The more surprising news was that Brian Lenihan, the 20-year-old right back who only left Cork City for Premier League outfit Hull City just a few weeks ago, was on his way to join up with the squad after being called in on the basis of recommendations from team-mates, who say he has impressed in training.

Turned down

It is a good opportunity for the young defender who O’Neill said would, at the very least, benefit from the experience. However, if it ends up amounting to anything more than that, then some of the more obvious candidates for the vacancy created by Seamus Coleman’s injury may well feel a little aggrieved at having been overlooked.

Jack Grealish, meanwhile, is apparently happy to stay out of the senior squad for the moment, with O'Neill revealing that the well-regarded young Aston Villa midfielder turned down the opportunity to join up with the senior squad in advance of the Oman game last month.

“I’ve made my thoughts known to him and I’m not going to go running around repeating them,” said the manager.

“Jack has also had an opportunity to come here which his father decided not to . . . the previous time . . . to come and train with us, but he wanted to stay with the Under-21s so that’s fine.

“I’m not going to apply pressure. I’m not going to do it. People will make up their own minds. It’s their lives.”