Robbie Keane Emerging as Contender for Preston North End Job

Robbie Keane is back in the managerial conversation – and this time the noise is coming from Deepdale.

The former Celtic striker has emerged as a serious contender for the vacant Preston North End job, with reports claiming the 46-year-old is on the club’s shortlist following Paul Heckingbottom’s exit.

Only a few months ago, Keane was being lined up for a very different role. He held talks over a return to Celtic, where he was strongly linked with the manager’s position before Martin O’Neill was confirmed on a permanent basis. Keane had been in discussions about stepping in after O’Neill’s interim spell, but the move stalled and ultimately disappeared.

Now his route back into the dugout may run through the Championship.

Journalist Alan Nixon has reported that Keane is firmly “in the frame” at Preston, a club where the hierarchy already know his work and his world. North End chairman Peter Ridsdale has a long-standing connection with Keane from their time together at Leeds United, a relationship that could carry weight as Preston weigh up their options.

Ridsdale’s ties stretch beyond Keane. He also knows O’Neill well. The Celtic manager visited Deepdale earlier this year with coach Mark Fotheringham, underlining a link that goes back more than 20 years. In 2003, Ridsdale offered O’Neill the Leeds job, and such was the seriousness of that approach that O’Neill even signed a “statement of intent” over a possible move to Elland Road while he waited to see if his Celtic contract would be renewed.

Keane, by contrast, is searching for his next foothold in management after a bruising end to last season. He left Ferencvaros having missed out on the Hungarian title to ETO FC Gyori, a result that snapped the Budapest club’s seven-year grip on the championship. The man who dethroned Ferencvaros, Balazs Borbely, was then chosen as Keane’s replacement.

The Irishman’s recent link with Celtic felt almost inevitable. He enjoyed a spell there as a player and retains a strong relationship with the club’s principal shareholder, Dermot Desmond. But once O’Neill was handed the job, Keane stayed silent in public about how close he came to taking over at Parkhead.

Preston could change that quiet spell in an instant. A move to Deepdale would hand Keane his first crack at managing in the English Championship – a different stage, a bigger spotlight, and a chance to prove he belongs in the thick of it in one of football’s most unforgiving leagues.