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Would A-League fans prefer their club to sign a marquee coach or a marquee player? It’s a question which should be asked amid the ongoing Roy Keane saga, with Melbourne Victory ready to outlay a hefty sum of money for a coach with a relatively unproven record.
Late last week Keane denied he was interested in taking over the vacant role at the Victory, despite earlier being spotted in Sydney watching Sydney FC’s frustrating draw against Shanghai in the AFC Champions League.
One wonders if Shanghai’s penchant for play-acting had any effect on the former tough-tackling midfielder and now straight-talking coach, with Keane forging a fiercesome reputation for never shirking from a challenge in a colourful and often controversial career.
Keane’s coaching career has been similarly contentious: after leading Sunderland to promotion from the Championship he eventually parted ways with the Wearsiders, only to be sacked by his next club Ipswich Town.
In coaching terms Keane is somewhat of a novice, although there’s little doubt that after playing under the likes of Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson, the Irish tactician has picked up a helpful hint or two.
But one of the questions which seems to have gone amiss through this whole ‘will he, won’t he’ saga is whether A-League fans would prefer to see their club sign a high-profile coach, or whether that money might be better spent on a high-profile player?
Would Victory fans trade a season under Roy Keane as coach for a season with Ryan Giggs on the pitch, for example?
And would someone like the softly-spoken Giggs or the media-savvy David Beckham prove a better spokesman for the A-League than a firebrand like Keane, who comes with a fierce reputation for being prickly with the press?
Mind you, A-League clubs haven’t gone close to signing players with a profile like Giggs or Beckham ever since Dwight Yorke hopped on a plane to be reunited with his former Manchester United teammate Keane at Sunderland.
And while the question of whether Victory would rather splash their cash on a coach than another Ricardinho is perhaps moot, we should at least consider what sort of playing style Keane might employ.
After all, it’s one thing to operate as fluid box-to-box midfielder when you’ve got the likes of Giggs and David Beckham playing alongside you, but entirely another to mould a winning side using limited resources.
Brisbane Roar were popular champions not just for their 28-game unbeaten streak but also because Ange Postecoglou’s side played the most entertaining football in the league.
But if Keane is interested only in results and employs a rudimentary style to achieve them, do Victory really gain from the transaction?
It’s all well and good to suggest he brings added media exposure across the globe, but so far it has proved difficult to leverage that kind of exposure into tangible financial gain.
That said, I’m still glad Victory have been in the news over their chase for the former Ireland international, not least because these are the kind of rumours which are part and parcel of European and South American football culture.
It’s exciting to see an A-League club in the hunt for a recognisable star, even if interim coach Mehmet Durakovic could perhaps consider himself unfortunate to be shoved aside for Keane.
A Roy Keane-Kevin Muscat partnership?
An interesting proposition no doubt, but I’m interested to hear whether Victory and other A-League fans would prefer to see money spent on a marquee player as opposed to a high-profile coach?