Soccer: The ploy for Roy

There was only ever going to be one question that mattered and it wasn't: "What do you think of Gary Breen's alarming loss of form in the West Ham defence?"

Roy Keane. Keano. The man who divided a nation. The name on everyone's lips, the name Brian Kerr has probably chanted like a mantra through what must have been his fitful sleep. He probably rehearsed the answer he gave a million times.

And yet when the Republic of Ireland's new manager responded to the will he/won't he inquiry, he ducked it with the pugilistic skill that made his father a boxing champion, while at the same time making it quite clear what he wanted.

Amazingly, it took eight minutes from the moment Kerr sat down to rapturous applause at the packed media conference in Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel for the man who was sent home from the World Cup to be mentioned.

But that was only because the affable and earnest Kerr took more than six minutes to answer his first question, a gentle inquiry as to how he felt.

Boy, does he like to talk. And talk. After the bluff years of Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy, the Irish have one of their own.

So what about Roy Keane?

"I don't think anyone here expects that I would be foolish enough to reveal to the three or four people who have turned up how I intend to handle that situation," Kerr joked.

"I am not going to tell you now how I am going to deal with it, but I am going to deal with it. If you ask me again then I will give you the same bullshit 20 different ways."

Bullshit? Yep. Kerr, in fact, used the word twice in a bright and breezy performance in which he also revealed that he had been offered the job several weeks ago and not, as previously thought, in the last few days (he beat the former Middlesbrough manager Bryan Robson into second place, with the French coach Philippe Troussier also impressing).

Again on Keane, he said: "I have thought about it over the past few weeks after I was told I would get the job. I have a plan in mind about how I intend to deal with it."

That plan, it is thought, probably involves not approaching the Manchester United captain to be involved in Ireland's forthcoming friendly against Scotland.

Kerr, who has been promoted after six years of startling success in charge of the nation's youth teams, has to name his squad tonight.

He will be in England over the weekend and into next week, and is expected to seek a face-to-face meeting with Keane, his advisers and, probably, Sir Alex Ferguson before attempting to bring the former captain back into the international fold.

What the 49-year-old Dubliner feels he already has is the support of the Irish squad, having nurtured several, such as Damien Duff, through the youth teams.

He said he had spoken to some players already, but added: "I will not be going into my dealings with the players and who talked to me."

Was that a pointed reference to the very public bust-up McCarthy had last year with Keane at Ireland's training camp in Saipan?

He is undoubtedly popular and, fresh from another youth tournament success in Abu Dhabi, thrived on a huge groundswell of public opinion which backed his appointment. Despite a modest playing career, he is known as a man with a great attention to detail and, though forming a curious double act with his equally little-known deputy Noel O'Reilly, has little doubt that he would be able to handle big-name players.

"It was a huge decision for the FAI [Football Association of Ireland] to give the job to someone who lives in Ireland, works in Ireland and has had such a medal-laden career," he deadpanned, before adding, "I will maintain the common man approach, someone ordinary who is just trying to achieve extraordinary things."

It was an emotional, heartfelt moment, punctured by the ringing of a mobile phone and another jokey aside. "If that's for me, tell them I won't be home for tea," he said.

Things could be interesting for the Irish.

- INDEPENDENT