Roy Keane’s eventful soccer career took another unexpected twist yesterday when he was appointed the new manager of Championship club Ipswich.
The former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland midfielder has signed a two-year contract at the Suffolk club, who sacked former boss Jim Magilton on Wednesday after it became clear that Ipswich had no chance of securing promotion to the Premier League this season.
Keane, 37, has been out of work since leaving Sunderland in December but recently indicated that he was ready for a new challenge.
“I truly believe that I am joining a club that has the potential, ambition and infrastructure to once again be a Premier League side,” the Irishman said. “The club’s owner and chief executive impressed upon me their total focus on achieving this quest at the earliest opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.”
Having taken Sunderland from fourth from bottom of the Championship into the Premier League in 2006-2007, his first season in charge, Keane knows what it takes to get teams into the top flight of English soccer.
But the abrupt manner of his departure from Sunderland raised questions about whether his character — uncompromising to admirers; insular and volatile to his critics — is suited to the multi-faceted task of managing a soccer club.
After he left Sunderland, his old manager at Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, was among a number of figures who questioned whether he would ever return to management.
Keane subsequently explained that the decision to leave had been triggered by a breakdown in his relationship with Ellis Short, an US investor who had started to question the way the Irishman was running the club at a time when Sunderland were struggling on the pitch.
Whatever the truth of what went on at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, the way events were perceived meant Keane was unlikely to be offered the chance of managing a Premier League club.
In a recent interview with the Irish Times, however, he stressed that he was willing to take a step back down to the Championship and move from his home in the Manchester suburbs.
At Ipswich, he is expected to be backed with substantial funds with the owner, Marcus Evans, having already invested £12 million (US$17.4 million) on new players.
That investment did not produce the desired results under Magilton, who had been in charge since June 2006 and left with the club in ninth place in the table, 12 points adrift of the final play-off spot.
Evans said Keane had been approached because of his record of getting his teams to play passing soccer, in the tradition of a club which won the UEFA Cup in 1981 and, with the Dutch duo Arnold Muhren and Fransz Thijssen, were pioneers in importing foreign talent into the English game.
“Roy has extensive contacts in the game and is a proven winner who encourages his team to play the attractive football that Ipswich Town fans have come to expect,” Evans said. “He is the right man to take this club where we want to be — the Premier League.”
Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen yesterday exited at the BWF World Tour Finals in China, losing in the semi-finals to China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi. Shi, who was named the BWF Men’s Singles Player of the Year, had a 9-4 record against Chou going into the match. He extended that record to 9-5 with a 21-14, 21-18 victory. Chou advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals on Friday by upsetting top-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a must-win match at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. The 16-21, 21-18, 21-15 victory saw Chou secure his second semi-finals appearance at the tournament, despite his relatively older
‘REMARKABLE’: Gaelic football is a traditional Irish sport that blends the skills of soccer and rugby, and hurling is an ancient sport played with a wooden stick and ‘sliotar’ The Taiwan Celts Gaelic Football Club marked a milestone achievement at the Asian Gaelic Games in Bangkok on Nov. 23 and 24, with two sides advancing to the knockout stages and competing at hurling for the first time. The event brought together 68 teams from 16 clubs across Asia, with more than 800 players in men’s and women’s tournaments. Gaelic football is a traditional Irish team sport that blends the skills of soccer, rugby union and basketball. Hurling is an ancient Irish sport played with a wooden stick, called a hurley, and a small ball, or sliotar. The Taiwan Celts’ women’s team reached
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest chess world champion on Thursday after beating the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the final match of their series in Singapore. Dommaraju, 18, secured 7.5 points against 6.5 of his Chinese rival in the contest, surpassing the achievement of Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who won the title at the age of 22. The Indian teen prodigy has long been considered a rising star in the chess world after he became a chess grandmaster at 12. He had entered the match as the youngest-ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier
RSS