Back in the firing line: Keane is set to spearhead
Ipswich's promotion charge next season
Roy Keane will today be named manager of Ipswich Town
and given massive funds to take the club back to the Barclays
Premier League.
The Portman Road hierarchy wanted a new man in place for the
final two games of
the season after sacking Jim Magilton yesterday. Keane’s box-office
appeal, together with a track record of winning the Championship,
which he achieved with Sunderland two years ago, made him the
choice of Ipswich owner Marcus Evans and new chief executive Simon
Clegg.
Last night, 37-year-old Keane accepted Ipswich’s offer after
being given assurances that he will be allowed the freedom to do
the job his own way, without interference from the board.
After quitting Sunderland just before Christmas, Keane
complained that Ellis Short, the club’s majority shareholder, had
meddled in team matters. Keane, who will move from Cheshire to East
Anglia, might be alarmed by the way his new employers handled the
departure of Magilton, given that Evans sacked him over the phone
yesterday.
Magilton, 39, had been manager at Portman Road almost three
years and paid the price for failing to make the play-offs this
season despite significant investment in the squad.
Now Keane will have the task of deciding which of the 15 players
out of contract in the summer will be awarded a new deal. Clegg,
the former chief executive of the British Olympic Association who
only took up his post on Monday, said: ‘We want a winner. We have
been speaking to a number of people with proven track records.’
Magilton’s No 2 John Gorman, the former England assistant
manager, has also left.
Sacked: Magilton (left) and John Gorman left Portman
Road yesterday
Bryan Klug, first-team coach under Magilton, was
yesterday put in temporary charge but Keane may step in for
Saturday’s trip to Cardiff and Ipswich’s last game of the season at
home to Coventry on May 3. Tony Loughlan, who was part of Keane’s
Sunderland staff, is expected to rejoin him at
Ipswich.
After leaving Sunderland, Keane made it clear that he would not
work anywhere without a large degree of autonomy. ‘It started with
a demand to know where I had been the previous day, that he wanted
me available at all times,’ Keane said
earlier this year about the conversations with Short which preceded
his departure from the Stadium of Light.
Autonomy: Keane will insist on a level of
independence after his experiences at Sunderland
‘It was a disappointment. Then there were accusations about how
often I came in, about moving my family up. And it was the
tone.
‘At United, I finished and I knew I was just an employee to
them. At Sunderland it was the same. I left and people came out
saying Roy’s gone and we’re all more relaxed.
‘It was them and me. The United experience helped me. It didn’t
upset me, what happened at Sunderland. It was a business decision.
Even for me I suppose it was a business decision. I couldn’t give
my heart and soul with this fella on my shoulder.’
