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Chris Sutton believes the fact that Roy Keane is not yet Celtic manager is proof in its own right that he is destined not to land the job.
The former Celtic star and pundit has reacted with shock at the fact that the ex-Manchester United bulwark is the supposed frontrunner for the vacant job at Parkhead.
“I don’t believe it can be Roy Keane, because he is not in a job at this moment in time. Well, he’s in a job but not a football job,” the former Celtic striker said on BBC 5 Live’s Monday Night club.
“I would find it baffling if Celtic appoint a Roy Keane, or an Eddie Howe, because somebody who is out of work should have been in long before now.
“It would be the oddest decision. There have been some odd things go on at Celtic over the past season but that would be a really strange decision, unless there has already been a deal done and say that a Roy Keane or an Eddie Howe would be part of the recruitment process.
“The worry with Roy Keane, whether we like it or not, he did well at Sunderland, did ok at Ipswich, but I think that was a decade ago.
“I know he was assistant to Martin O’Neill and I know Martin raves about him, thinks he can go in and do a very good job of it.”
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Roy Keane has been out of the managerial world almost to the point where his absence from the game is chronic.
His first taste of managerial experience in 2006 saw him win the English Championship with Sunderland, before a doom-laden Premier League campaign left the Black Cats languishing by the midway point of the 2008 season in the top division.
With further misery in a 20-month spell at Ipswich, Sutton is at least justified in identifying how much of a risk Keane could be as an appointment.
It assumes a lack of attunement to the modern game – an assumption that might not necessarily ring true – but it is nonetheless a point worth raising.
