Roy Keane Appointed As Manager At Ipswich Town

No Change To The 'Under-21' Rule In Scotland, For Now

Former Manchester United and Celtic (and Nottingham Forest and Cogh Ramblers) midfielder Roy Keane was appointed as manager of Championship outfit Ipswich Town last Thursday.

The abrasive former United captain had stood down as manager of Sunderland AFC in December but expressed his happiness with his new position, saying that he was looking forward to the job ahead and hoped he would be able to lead the Tractor Boys to the Premier League next season.

In an interview for Ipswich Town's website, Keane said: "There are lots of reasons why I have decided to come to Ipswich. I know what a good club it is and having met the owner, Marcus Evans, I can see his ambitions for the Club in his eyes.

"It's the biggest challenge of my career - getting this Club back in the Premier League - because it's the next challenge. It is massive one though. The Club is 26 points behind Wolves and when you look at the strong teams in the Championship at the moment, and consider the possibility of West Brom, who know how to get out of this division, Newcastle and Middlesbrough coming down, then it's a going to be a challenge but that is what life is all about and maybe we can surprise a few people."

He noted that the offer from Ipswich's Chief Executive Simon Clegg came at the right time, but emphasized that he'd "spent a lot of time with [his] family and really enjoyed the break.

"The last four or five weeks I've thought about getting involved again if the right challenge came up for me and that has happened here at Ipswich.

"The timing is okay. We have two games left and it gives me a chance to look at the players we have here, especially the ones who are out of contract. They trained well this morning. I can be demanding but I like to think I'm fair and if they give me 100 per cent then we will all be happy."

Last Friday the Scottish Premier League confirmed that it was retaining its 'under-21' rule that specifies that each SPL team must have three outfield players under twenty-one-years-old in their matchday 18-man squads.

Both Celtic boss Gordon Strachan and his Old Firm counterpart Walter Smith oppose the rule on the grounds that the players enter the squad simply because of their ages, rather than having proved that they deserve to be there.

The Scottish Premier League did say that they would reconsider the ruling again for the 2010/2011 season.

The idea of the Old Firm teams joining the English Premier League is still in play this week, but the next moves are unlikely to happen until the league's Annual General Meeting in June.

Though the Premier League bosses met last Thursday, they are said not to have discussed a controversial new two-tiered Premier League plan put forward by Bolton Wanderers' chairman Phil Gartside.

The English top four are said to oppose the idea.