Martin O'Neill tips Roy Keane to be a managerial great

Dec 14 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

ROY Keane not only had the fortune to play for Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, but then went to Old Trafford to work under another true legend in Sir Alex Ferguson.

And Martin O'Neill believes the Sunderland boss can go on to become another managerial great.

"He was a great player and he can definitely go on to become a great manager. He would have all the attributes to do it," said O'Neill, whose Villa side travel to the Stadium of Light tomorrow.

"I accept managing is a totally different thing to playing, but he could be just as excellent in management as he was as a player."

O'Neill has been impressed with Keane's willingness to listen and adapt in his time in the North East, which began so smoothly with promotion but has become rather more testing in the Premier League.

"Management is also about learning and I hear him saying after matches that he has things to learn and you learn all the time," said O'Neill.

"You learn all the time as a player. Sir Alex Ferguson would say to you now that over the last couple of years since he thought about retirement and came back again with renewed vitality that there are things he's learned about managing that hadn't occurred to him that strongly before."

O'Neill added: "This season he's seeing the Premier League in a different light from playing to managing and I don't think anything will faze him.

"He's been fortunate to have worked under two of the best managers ever in Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough.

"But after that he had to get used to dealing with ordinary people - and that becomes a bit of a let down!"