THERE are different ways to gauge how completely Roy Keane has absorbed the culture of Manchester United. A devotee of Glenn Hoddle's Tottenham Hotspur growing up, he likes to claim, in the revisionist version of his formative years, to have supported United and only his closest boyhood friends ever dare contradict him. The first time Alex Ferguson threw Keane the captain's armband, in the absence of the suspended Eric Cantona in February, 1997, even the manager was surprised at what an honour his player considered the job. Eventually, they are all taken in by the size of the United legend.
So inured have we become to backpage hoopla that it was easy to dismiss last Tuesday morning's glut of stories about Keane's future as yet more idle tabloid chatter. Except, the United captain's assertion that he would be prepared to leave Old Trafford if the club doesn't offer him a contract commensurate with his market value appears to be more than just sabre-rattling of the kind that seems to attend so much football business these days. Keane speaks out of turn seldom enough for us to take those occasions when he does at face value.
"Of course, it would be a wrench for him to leave but if it comes down to it, he would have to seriously consider it and looking at his age, now would be the best time for him to go abroad," says Michael Kennedy, the London-based solicitor who is Keane's chief adviser. "He's more settled in himself, far more mature and if he was to go abroad, he would be able for it. If he'd have gone abroad before, he might well have self-destructed but now, he'd have his wife and kids around him and he would be more suited to coping."
In the spring of 1996, Barcelona headed the queue of Spanish, Italian and German clubs seeking Keane's hand. On that occasion, 18 months before his first contract elapsed, United moved quickly to renegotiate. The importance of Kennedy in those discussions, and by extension, the crucial role he will play in determining Keane's future now, was acknowledged by Alex Ferguson in subsequent comments.
"Obviously we didn't want Roy to leave and it was a worry," Ferguson said in May, 1997. "I'm sure there was a degree of tapping going on by other clubs and the one consoling factor in all that was that his lawyer Michael Kennedy is a very reasonable person. He would understand the values of staying and leaving and Roy does listen to him so I was confident really that common sense would prevail. As long as negotiating is done from a basis of common sense, we have a better than even chance of retaining our player."
This time round, the circumstances and the time frame are remarkably similar but the odds may no longer be in the club's favour, not least because of the continued uncertainty about Ferguson's own position. There is no question that Keane feels immense loyalty to the man who helped transform him from one more bright young midfielder into the Premiership's best. Less certain is Keane's affection for the club as a plc, and with Martin Edwards making bullish comments about United being in no hurry to re-sign the player yet, everything is up in the air.
"I have been surprised by some of the quotes that have been attributed to Edwards in the papers," says Michael Kennedy. "However, I do think they will start talking shortly. From our point of view, we are in no hurry to start negotiations, the longer this drags on the better for us. Roy is in a position of strength now and the nearer it gets to the end of his contract, that position will only become stronger. Right now, he's very relaxed and he's not worried about his future in any way."
Given the sort of posturing that typically informs these affairs, it is perhaps instructive to remember how Keane has done business with United in the past. In the summer of 1993, he played snooker and talked football at Ferguson's house before settling for considerably less money than Blackburn had already offered him. Three years later, he eschewed Barcelona though a signing on fee of £3m, a salary of half that again, and the usual myriad extras that are the stuff of continental tenders were mentioned.
On this evidence, it is fair to conclude money has never been his primary motivating factor. With tabloid guestimates putting his current earnings at £23,000 per week, Keane has long since amassed enough to comfortably provide for several future generations of his family, and although he has become more amenable to lending his name to endorsements in the last year, he still turns down 95% of the commercial opportunities that come his way.
But if the one constant in his career has been the decision to opt for privacy over profit then Italy or Spain might not be the wisest move. The paltry level of media penetration at United's training ground, The Cliff, is a world away from that of their Italian equivalents, where dozens of journalists routinely attend every work-out. This is an aspect of the foreign game that would surely not be to his liking.
"I used to think at one time that it would be a very good experience to play abroad at some point," said Keane in January 1997. "But the older I get, and now I have a family, I'm not so sure. You probably need to speak the language to make a success of it and maybe I'm too lazy to learn. You wouldn't be able to join in the dressing room banter and crack either, something I would really miss."
It is not unreasonable to surmise that Keane's opinion may have changed in the intervening two years. Undoubtedly ambitious - he did cite the desire to win trophies as the reason for initially choosing United over Blackburn - there appears little left for him to achieve in England. He has collected every domestic medal that matters at least twice, and this season the last great slight against his name, the failure of his fellow professionals to vote him their player of the year, may - the petty jealousies that percolate the game notwithstanding - be rectified.
That he has the game to succeed in Italy or Spain has not been at issue for some time. His thrilling performances against Croatia and Yugoslavia, two teams with a liberal sprinkling of Serie A and Primera Liga representatives, only underlined as much. Keane may not possess the killer pass, but the teams interested in securing his services have other players to perform that task. It would fall to him to provide a platform of possession for them, and how many are better than him at this? Edgar Davids? Fernando Redondo? This is what he and the rest of the world would find out.
The one great variable then, and the factor which might lead Keane to become more of an Ian Rush in Serie A than a Liam Brady is how capable he is of adapting to the different lifestyle. Apart from the intrusive and intense media spotlight, he has admitted himself that the language would be a problem. Unlike some other Premiership stars, he has not been busy learning Italian in his free time, just in case. Throw in the culture shock of moving even farther away from his family in Cork, and departing an area outside Manchester that is thick with other Irish players past and present, and the potential for difficulty grows.
"People are bound to scoff when I say I didn't come here just for the money," Liam Brady once said of his own move to Italy. "But truthfully, there was a hell of a lot more to it. I really was concerned with reaching my limits. I didn't come to snatch the cash and run. Football is my main means of expressing what's in me and I wanted to find out how much was there."
Amid all the current brinkmanship, Keane needs to happen upon the same realisation before he goes anywhere. Seeing out his career without ever having measured himself against the world's best would be a smaller pity than moving on for all the wrong reasons.
