Roy Keane re-emerges as contender for Ireland job

James Cox

Roy Keane has re-emerged as a contender for the Republic of Ireland job after talks with the FAI.

On Thursday, media reports revealed the former Manchester United captain had met with the FAI for talks on three separate occasions.

The FAI's search for a successor to Stephen Kenny, with long-standing favourite Lee Carsley ruling himself out of the running recently.

Keane's former United teammate John O'Shea was named as interim manager, and did a decent job in the recent friendlies. Ireland drew 0-0 with Belgium, and created the best chances including a missed Evan Ferguson penalty, and fell to a narrow 1-0 loss to Switzerland.

O'Shea declared his interest in becoming Ireland manager on a permanent basis, but this is thought to be unlikely at the moment.

Keane, 52, has now emerged as a contender for the role, along with the likes of Gus Poyet and Willy Sagnol.

While it had a sour ending, Keane's spell as Ireland assistant manager under Martin O'Neill was generally considered a success.

The pair led Ireland to Euro 2016 qualification, where they were knocked out 2-1 in the last-16 by hosts France after going ahead early on through a Robbie Brady penalty.

Brady also scored in a famous 1-0 victory over Italy in the group stages.

Keane has managed Sunderland and Ipswich Town, while he was also assistant to O'Neill at Nottingham Forest and Paul Lambert at Aston Villa.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, which he co-hosts, in January, Keane revealed he would be interested in a return to management with the Ireland job.

When asked about a potential managerial return, Keane said: "I think so, but it has got to be the right challenge. The right club... the right contract... can you bring your staff? I discuss this all the time. Sometimes you get offered a contract. I look at it if I do get offered stuff... and you need to have a bit of self-worth. Is the deal right for you or whatever?

"I'd like to go back in, but I'm not desperate that I'll sign any contract for anybody."

Jamie Carragher then asked Keane straight out if he would be interested in being the next Ireland manager.

Keane replied: "Yeah, international football. That does appeal to me. I enjoyed it when I was a coach, I enjoyed the dynamics of it where you're not in every day and it's not about bringing players in, dealing with the board every week.

"I did enjoy the dynamics when I was coaching with Martin [O'Neill] with the Irish team. We had a little bit of success, when you've had a little bit of success and you look back it's brilliant. Obviously there's disappointment too.

"Yeah, that could be an option... yeah."

However, Poyet remains the favourite for the job. His Greece side failed to qualify for Euro 2024 following a penalty shootout play-off defeat to Georgia.

He has insisted he will not discuss new roles until his contract officially ends on Sunday.