Former Blues boss Roy Keane has admitted that Town wasn't the right club for him. The former Ireland skipper, sacked by the Blues after 20 turbulent months in January, doesn’t regret taking the manager's job at Portman Road but says it was a mistake not to have met chief executive Simon Clegg before he signed on the dotted line.
Speaking to Cork-based radio station Life FM on Saturday, Keane said that he doesn’t regret becoming Town manager in April 2009: "Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. If you don’t make mistakes, you never learn. I had my three-month break after Sunderland and Ipswich felt right.
"My only mistake really about taking the Ipswich job was that I agreed to take it before I met the chief executive. I won’t be doing that again.”
During his time in the Portman Road hotseat, the 39-year-old was frequently critical of the club’s failure to complete deals to sign the players he targeted last summer, most notably then-Crystal Palace skipper Shaun Derry, who was at Playford Road and had agreed to join on a free transfer before eventually signing for QPR and helping them to the Championship title.
Asked whether promises were broken during his time with Town, Keane refused to be drawn any further: "That’s something you can’t go into, I’d be here all night with you.
"Ipswich is a good club but sometimes the DNA doesn’t work out, it just doesn’t suit. I’ve seen it with other clubs, I’ve seen managers go ‘listen, it doesn’t seem right’.
"Even Roy Hodgson, a top, top coach, and I’m certainly not comparing myself to Roy, I look at him at Liverpool and the dynamics just didn’t seem right.
"Looking back now, Ipswich maybe wasn’t the right club for me. As I say, I made the mistake of agreeing to take the job before I met the chief executive. That’s a vital role… you’re working with somebody so closely and I won’t be doing that again.”
Keane, who dismissed claims that he is set to become the boss of Australian side the Melbourne Victory, says he has no immediate plans to get back into management: "Not today. I’ve been out for a couple of months and I’m enjoying my bit of time off. Part of my problem is that when I’m involved, I’m involved, there are no half measures.
"I think I have to step back, recharge the batteries, take stock and see what’s around the corner. Who knows? If I’m out of the game for another six months or six years, so be it. It would have to be the right club.
"As I say in hindsight, Ipswich, and I’m not being critical of the club, it just didn’t seem to sit right with either of us. And hopefully I won’t make that mistake again.”