Former Nottingham Forest assistant Roy Keane has been backed to make a successful return to management – as long as he has learned a few lessons.
The Irishman quit his post as No.2 at the City Ground last month, shortly before the axe fell on Martin O’Neill as boss.
It is understood former Sunderland and Ipswich Town chief Keane was eager to get back to a manager’s role, eight years after his last one.
And one of his former charges has opened up on what it was like to play under him – and why he can still be a big hit in the hot seat.
“I was surprised he had so long out of management, but then again, knowing Roy and his ambition and competitiveness, he wouldn’t ever just take any job. It would have to be the right project," said defender Carlos Edwards, who played for Keane at both the Black Cats and the Tractor Boys.
“He will want to be at a club that want to challenge for things, and he will want the backing of the board and chairman and so on.
“I think he can definitely go back into management successfully.
“I’m hoping over the years he will have learned.
“Over the years I saw him escalate from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds. If he hasn’t learned from that then I do think he will have problems. But I do think he has learned over the years.
“It’s natural as an international assistant manager that you will knock heads with one of two players, but I think that experience will benefit him and he will be a better manager now than he was at Sunderland and Ipswich.
“At that time maybe, he just lacked in the man-management side of things and I’d like to think he has gone away and assessed that and looked to improve on that.
“Maybe not, though. He can be very stubborn at times also.
“But I definitely hope he can come back and be a success.”
Keane was in the dugout at the Stadium of Light for two years from 2006 to 2008, leading the club back to the Premier League during that time – with Edwards part of that squad.
The Manchester United legend went on to take over at Portman Road, before going on to link up with O’Neill with the Republic of Ireland national team and then at Forest.
“I did enjoy playing for Roy,” Edwards told the Newcastle Chronicle. “I had my good times and my bad times under him.
“He is only human – he is not perfect. He can be a strange guy at times, and we all know this.
“But he managed the players really well at Sunderland and gave everyone a fair chance to impress him and to make amends when they could do better.
“But if you cross him too many times, that’s when things weren’t so good with Roy.
“Me personally, I think certain things got under his skin a bit too easily.
“Sometimes he maybe punished players in the wrong way, but that’s just my opinion.
“In saying that, as players you do have to take responsibility for certain actions. He would back you as much as he could publicly, but there would come a time where he would think, ‘enough is enough’.”
Keane has rarely been shy when it comes to voicing his opinion, particularly as a television pundit.
Edwards added: “Roy is very private and doesn’t share much of his private life, but, to be fair to him, he loved team bonding and he had a lot of banter.
“A lot of people think he is just stuck-up and miserable, but he has a lot of banter about him, to be fair.
“You see him do punditry and he's so sarcastic and so blunt at times. He doesn't hold back. It makes me laugh watching because I think, ‘that's the Roy Keane I know’.
“But at the same time, he can be the miserable character he's perceived to be. But that's just human. You have your days where you're not in the mood.
“He is what he is. What you see is what you get with Roy.”
