Roy Keane has joked that ‘someone should have told him years ago’ that social media could help land him a management role.
Keane – who has 1.5million followers on Instagram – has not taken charge of a club since leaving Ipswich in 2011, but did assist Martin O’Neill at Nottingham Forest in 2019.
As a result, he has told Gary Neville that he is desperate to get back into coaching and joked that his decision to create a social media account during lockdown could help.
Roy Keane (above) has told Gary Neville that he would like to make a return to management
Keane – who is notorious for his hatred of social media – was shocked to hear about the benefits he could receive from his mass following on Instagram.
Having clocked up 1.5m followers in the first 27 weeks of having an account, Neville joked that the platform could help Keane transition back into management.
The former Manchester United captain found the whole situation hilarious and responded saying: ‘Instagram could get me a job. So if I get my pro license and all my experience, Instagram will get me the f**king job. That’s great that. Should have told me that years ago. Jesus.’
The discussion over Keane’s use of social media use came from the pair’s conversation on Gary Neville’s The Overlap YouTube channel.
Neville (above) says that Keane’s rise to social media stardom could help with his transition
Keane has racked up 1.5million followers on his Instagram – without following a single person
When Neville asked Keane where he saw himself in five years, the Irishman responded saying he was looking to make a sensational return to management as he believes he ‘could be a good boss’.
‘I am pretty content in what I am doing at the moment but I have my days where I get restless like everyone else’, said Keane.
‘I ask myself do I want to get back into management but realistically where am I going to go back into? The Championship? The top of League One?’.
When pressed on whether he would like to return to management, Keane said: ‘Yeah. It’s not easy when I went into management but there is something in there that makes me think I could be a good manager. That’s what’s pulling me to make me go back in.’
The fiery Irishman has had mixed success as a manager. He achieved promotion to the Premier League with Sunderland in 2007 and then kept the Mackems in the top flight the following season. However, a poor run of results saw him stand down from the job in 2008.
Keane’s first Instagram post (above) was a selfie with his dog captioned: ‘A man’s best friend’
Keane went on to complete spell as the Sunderland and Ipswich manager before taking up an assistant role with O’Neill at Aston Villa and the Republic of Ireland.
However, he left the managerial side of football to become one of Sky Sport’s main pundits with a reputation for being outspoken.
Now, two years on, Keane is looking to make a sensational return to management and Neville believes his rise to social media stardom during lockdown could help with the transition.
However, Neville did question why the Irishman decided to set up an Instagram account given the fact he has never shied away from voicing his disapproval over such apps.
Keane – who previously criticised the 2015 Arsenal squad for being more interested in taking selfies than winning trophies – said: ‘It was my youngest daughter, she said go on dad.
‘We were in lockdown and she goes can you do it dad for a bit of a laugh. So I said come on then let’s do it for a bit of a laugh, bit of fun. So yeah I’m doing it for my daughter.’
It was his third post that had fans howling as he shared a picture of himself and his grandson glaring nonchalantly into the camera, writing: ‘Just like his grandad, always smiling!’
Keane is known for his stern views as a pundit on Sky Sports, but he shows a more relaxed and comical side to himself on social media.
One of his most liked posts was a picture of himself and his grandson glaring nonchalantly into the camera. Keane captioned it: ‘Just like his grandad, always smiling!’.
The hilarious post, which was Keane’s third after joining the platform, received over 6,000 likes and 6,500 comments.
As a result of the popularity of his posts, Keane revealed that he had been approached about the management of his profile.
He said: ‘People have said to me, who is your team? Where is your team based? And I went where is my team?As if I have a team. It’s me and my 16-year-old daughter. She is the Chief Executive.’
Neville went on to ask whether his daughter still managed the account, to which Keane replied: ‘We say manage it… f**king hell I mean we say can we do a picture and we do a picture, is that managing it?’.
Keane (above) achieved promotion to the Premier League with Sunderland in 2007 and then kept the Mackems in the top flight the following season
He the took up an assistant role with Matin O’Neill at Aston Villa and the Republic of Ireland
The Sky Sports pundit has already racked up 1.5million followers on his page – without following a single person.
Neville, who has 1.3m followers after joining Instagram in 2016, expressed his surprise at Keane’s following.
He said: ‘I checked this morning and you had 1.4m followers!’, to which Keane replied: ‘right, what does that mean? Will it get me a job?’.
It was after Neville said that it could, that Keane replied saying: ‘Instagram could get me a job. So if I get my pro license and all my experience, Instagram will get me the f**king job. That’s great that. Should have told me that years ago. Jesus.’
This isn’t the first time Keane has expressed his desire to return to management – with Sportsmail previously revealing his appetite for the hot-seat.