ROY KEANE TURNED down the chance to manage Celtic as he didn’t feel like the club were doing enough to show they wanted him.

The Scottish Premier League champions were in the market for a new boss back in May when Neil Lennon decided to depart after four years at the helm.

It emerged that Keane, who played for the Hoops for a season after leaving Manchester United in 2005, was one of the leading candidates for the job and although he had recently agreed to become Martin O’Neill’s assistant with Ireland’s senior team, he decided to meet with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond and discuss a deal.

In his new autobiography The Second Half, as seen by the Daily Mail, Keane says:

“I got a call: would I go and have a chat with Dermot Desmond? I’d met him once before, in 2005, when I was signing to play for Celtic. ‘I met him for a cup of tea. It was in the middle of an international week, in Dublin.

“It was all pretty straightforward. There would be one or two restrictions, about staff. They had already picked the man who would be my assistant and they were insisting on him.

“It didn’t scare me off but it did get me thinking. It wasn’t an ideal start. Were they doubting me already?

“I came back to the team hotel and spoke to Martin (O’Neill). I told him I would have a think about it.

“We (the Republic of Ireland) had a game against Italy at Craven Cottage in London on the following Saturday.

The fact I had spoken to Dermot Desmond had become public knowledge. It had to, because Martin had a press conference and a few things had been leaked — as usual.

“I was delighted. It was a massive compliment. Over the years, I had always said: “If you’re offered the Celtic job, you don’t turn it down”.”

Keane decide to remain on with O'Neill and Ireland. Niall Carson Niall Carson

Keane admits being torn between whether to jump at the opportunity despite having his reservations, or stick it out with the international set-up. In the end, he chose the latter as their were several conditions to the offer which he wasn’t happy with.

“I was in a predicament …and my gut feeling was saying: ‘You’re on your own with this one’.

“I asked Paul Gilroy, the League Managers’ Association lawyer, to speak to Celtic to discuss terms. Money hadn’t been mentioned yet.

“I got in touch with Celtic’s chief executive, Peter Lawwell and asked him to give me a ballpark figure before negotiations got going.

“He mentioned a figure and he said: ‘But that’s it’. Paul told me there were a lot of clauses in the contract that he wasn’t happy with. And the figures were non-negotiable.

I got my head around that. But it felt a bit too familiar. I had been down this road before when I signed for Celtic as a player. I felt they wanted me but they weren’t showing how much they wanted me.

“We played Italy on the Saturday and I had a message on my phone on Sunday from Dermot Desmond. They wanted a heads-up by tomorrow, Monday. I thought about the Celtic offer. It wasn’t rocking my boat.

“They weren’t convincing me: ‘Listen, you’re the man for us’. I went to Paul Gilroy’s house (on Sunday night). There were things I wasn’t happy with in the contract. But I know if you examined every clause too carefully, you would never sign anything.

“I rang Dermot Desmond on the Monday and said: ‘I’m really honoured you offered me the job but I want to stay with Martin’.”

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