PETERBOROUGH UNITED owner Darragh MacAnthony has admitted he would never hire Manchester United legend Roy Keane.
Keane spent two-and-a-half years in charge at Sunderland after he retired from playing in 2006 and then spent 20 months at Ipswich Town before getting the sack in January 2011.
Despite his brief managerial career, 52-year-old Keane achieved success with the Black Cats leading them to victory in the Championship securing their promotion to the Premier League.
But since leaving Ipswich he has not held a management position although has been a part of the backroom staff at Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and the Republic of Ireland national team.
Over the years the Irishman has spoken about returning to management one day.
However, do not expect Peterborough to give Keane a job after chairman MacAnthony said he would worry about a culture clash between Keane and his players.
He said on TalkSPORT: “I love listening to him on ITV, I love all of that, but no way.
“I know he did phenomenally at Sunderland, he won promotion with them, they went on the run and won the league and got to the Premier League.
“But I think we have to look at this – and it drives me mad sometimes – generations today have changed from footballers 10, 15, 20 years ago.”
Sir Alex Ferguson‘s son, Darren, is enjoying his fourth spell in the hot seat at the League One side.
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MacAnthony continued: “I said to Darren, my manager, the other day, ‘Darren, you could’ve said X to a player 15 years ago and he’d have no problem with it, you’d have given a slap down and the player would come in the next day and train magnificently.’
“You did that to one of these young generation players now, they are, I’m not going to use the word weak, but they are a little bit fickle, a little bit fragile.
“And the player won’t show up the next day, his agent will probably be ringing, the PFA will be on, they’ll be worried about his mental health, they’ll be worried about this, worried about that.
“It’s very different now the way you deal with young people, the way I bring my children up is very different to how other people bring up their kids now. I’m trying to teach my children to have thicker skin.
“I’m trying to teach my children basically like, ‘This is the real world you’re in here and it’s not so nice and not full of sunshine every day.’ And I just think footballers now are little bit different than 20 years ago.
“Roy Keane would frighten the life out of every player under the age of 23, in my opinion, in a football team.
“The average age of our team is 22, so they’d probably all stick in transfer requests after two weeks and he’d lose his rag with them.”
MacAnthony does believe the former United captain who is considered one of the Premier League’s all-time great midfielders could return to management but at another club.
He added: “I think there are certain horses for courses, I’m not saying Roy Keane can’t manage again.
“I’m not sure about the money he earns in broadcasting, you get paid the same to be a manager, hence why he has little hope of probably managing again. A great pundit, great ex-player, I’m not sure he’s a magnificent manager.”
Sunderland (August 2006 – December 2008)
Ipswich (April 2009 – January 2011)
