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Keane: I Got Recruitment Wrong at Town
Thursday, 26th Aug 2021 18:55

Former Town boss Roy Keane believes recruitment was where he got things wrong during his time in charge at Portman Road and admitted he lost confidence and had doubts in his 20 months with the Blues.

The former Republic of Ireland international spent an unhappy 20 months at Town between April 2009 and January 2011, spending significant sums on players such as Tamas Priskin and Lee Martin as he unsuccessfully sought to take the Blues into the Premier League.

Speaking at length with his former Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville in his The Overlap YouTube show, Keane talked about his time in management with the Blues and more successfully at Sunderland, who he took into the top flight in 2006/07 when they won the Championship title.

Town was his last management job, although he has worked as an assistant to Martin O’Neill with the Republic of Ireland and at Aston Villa to another ex-Blues manager Paul Lambert, but he says he’s keen to have another go.

“Sunderland were second bottom of the Championship, Sunderland was a great club for me, but there was pluses at Ipswich. I think there is something in there where I could be a good manager. That’s what’s kind of pulling at me to go back in.”

Reflecting on his two previous jobs in management, he said: “Where I got it right at Sunderland was the recruitment. I got it wrong at Ipswich. The best players are not always the best characters and I think that’s the hardest part.

“Do I look back at my coaching and my staff and think we got that really wrong? No, I don’t think I was really doing too much different to Sunderland.

“At Ipswich, what I was doing round the training ground and the pitch, how I dealt with people, I think that was one of my strengths, motivating people.

“When you’ve a good group, you’ve a good group, it’s as simple as that. Even when I was at Sunderland and we won a few matches, people were making out that we were doing something extraordinary, we weren’t. We were just having good training sessions, we got momentum.”

Keane says winning his opening two games with the Blues, a 3-0 victory at Cardiff and then a 2-1 home success over Coventry, ultimately proved to be a poor indicator of the club's position.

“The worst thing that happened to me at Ipswich was I won my first two matches which was at the end of the season, so when we won the first two matches I was thinking ‘Maybe it’s not so bad down there, maybe it’s not a big rebuild’,” he said.

“And then we lost one or two players and we started the season. In my first season at Ipswich I think we didn’t win for the first 14 or 15 matches. We got seven or eight draws, but as we know draws don’t get you anywhere fast.

“And then at the start of my second season, I had the dreaded chat with the owner [Marcus Evans] when he was in my office and we’re on the tactics board, ‘Why is he playing there?’ and you’re looking going ‘This is not right’.

“I knew my days were numbered when I was explaining to the owner why he’s playing right-back, why’s he playing left-back. I think I obviously learned more from my time at Ipswich than I did at Sunderland.”

Asked later where his lowest point in football was, when he lost his confidence and had doubts about himself, he said: “I think when I was a manager at Ipswich probably.”


Photo: Action Images



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KiwiBlue2 added 04:00 - Aug 27
I vividly recall being at Portman Road in late October 2009 for the first win of that season, a David Wright header, against Derby County securing a 1-0 result and being amazed when Wright was sold in the following January. What a shambles that era was.......
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hyperbrit added 04:18 - Aug 27
Keane in spite of his obvious faults was playing against a stacked deck from the start imo by assuming that Evans was really interested in the club when he was clearly not. He was told to sell Rhodes so that Marcus could engineer a pump and dump on Wickham to make more money for himself. Roy was not used to an owner using the club for his own business affairs and it must have been quite a shock for him.
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Tractor_Boy_in_HK added 05:11 - Aug 27
He still doesn't get it, "I got it wrong at Ipswich. The best players are not always the best characters and I think that's the hardest part."

He didn't recruit the best players, and he should have seen (and still see) the wrong character when he looks in the mirror.
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Europablue added 07:30 - Aug 27
carlo88 I like him much more now that he isn't in charge of our club.
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Europablue added 07:32 - Aug 27
To be fair to Keane ME's recruitment was way worse in that he brought Keane in in the first palce.
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cornishnick added 08:39 - Aug 27
With the slight exception of Mick McCarthy (35% v 37%), his win ratio as Ipswich manager is better than any of his predecessors.
1

naa added 09:13 - Aug 27
cornishnick: I think you mean successors, not predecessors!

Also, you are comparing him to Jewell, McCarthy, Hurst, Lambert and Cook. Hardly a glittering roster! Jewell left us bottom of the table, as did Hurst, Lambert got us relegated and Cook so far has failed, but the signs are hopeful.

And McCarthy did better.

It's like saying Hitler wasn't that bad if you compare him to Stalin!
2

naa added 09:17 - Aug 27
Len_Brennan summed Keane's time up very well. I can't believe someone here said they'd have him back! He ruined our club for years! In fact we're where we are as a result as Evans changed his policy completely after the failure of Keane. Before that he had invested.

Keane also doesn't sound like he's learned at all. If he really thought he was motivating our players he has a pretty low standard.

It was also interesting to read Evans was questioning his player positions. I know exactly what he was referring to as well, because for a period he played 4 centre backs, 2 of them at full back. At least one of them was a very young lad from the youth team. Seems even Evans realised that was a crap idea!
2

Bluearmy_81 added 09:40 - Aug 27
Saxon, it's the undeniable truth in hindsight. If it hurts that's tough.
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TimmyH added 10:00 - Aug 27
My overwhelming memory of Keane being in charge is him remaining motionless and mute in the dugout...very little motivation going by that as well as the obvious poor player recruitment.
1

planetblue_2011 added 10:43 - Aug 27
He's a totally idiot & a 💩 manager!!
Don't like the man👎
1

Marinersnose added 11:25 - Aug 27
Len Brennan you've called it spot on. Too many with short memories. Look where we are now eulogising over getting a poor Championship player on board. Now we have lots of decent league one players through the door and the team aren't playing to their strengths. I'm really hoping that we will see some green shoots appearing and that success is not too far away.
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ronnyd added 15:39 - Aug 27
Didn't take him long to realise that did it.
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legoman added 16:36 - Aug 27
I have to admit that when Roy was appointed I could have jumped over the moon. And when I watched sky ports saying "Roy Keanes Ipswich I loved it. To be fair he is a man who loves his footy whether playing it, watching it, talking about it and managing it , at Sunderland and did a job there that NONE of us could even think about achieving. I so wanted him to succeed here but the infrastructure he required was non existent imo :(
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Bergholtblue added 14:06 - Sep 6
"I think that was one of my strengths, motivating people." Is he having a laugh?

Motivating players by publicly stating that there were 3 players not good enough to wear the shirt. He didn't actually name them but everyone knew he meant McCauley, Delaney and Garvin. Two of which went on to have incredibly long careers in the Premier League.

The team was so motivated that there daren't make a mistake for fear of the manager's backlash. Walters should have flattened him when he had the chance!
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