IRELAND DEFENDER John O’Shea admits he expects Roy Keane to take charge of Celtic.

The current Ireland assistant manager has emerged as the favourite for the job and the Hoops have confirmed that they have approached Keane.

O’Shea conceded that Keane’s days as Ireland assistant are numbered.

“It looks very much like it now,” said the Sunderland skipper after training in Malahide today.

“Slowly but surely, it snowballed into having talks with Celtic, so I would be very surprised if it doesn’t get across the line.”

O’Shea and Keane says the players had tried to get an indication from Keane as to his intentions: “Obviously the lads have been trying to get hints but he’s kept a good poker face.”

The Waterford native echoed Martin O’Neill’s sentiments that losing Keane would be a huge disappointment but he believes the Celtic job is too good to turn down.

“It’s one of the clubs around the world that was going to entice him back into management and away from his current job. It’s something he would really enjoy I’m sure and relish the challenge of managing a fantastic club like Celtic. But let’s wait and see if it does happen,” he said.

O’Shea doesn’t think that Keane should have to choose and the question of juggling jobs was broached with the stand in skipper. “I can’t see why he couldn’t do it. I’m sure Celtic and the FAI would maybe prefer it to be one way or the other, but hey, things have been done like that in the past, so why can’t it be done in the future?”

No news is good news for O’Neill as Ireland boss says Keane job talk ‘just speculation’ for now

Kevin Doyle ‘up in the air’ but longing for Premier League return