SOCCER/Interview with Roy Keane: Tom Humphries meets an old warrior contemplating the afterlife. Coldly. Manchester United? "That is how cold the game is. I wasn't expecting bouquets when I left."

So the afterlife beckons. Keane without football. Football without Keane. He doesn't come to town and issue a Nixonian farewell, you boys won't have Roy Keane to kick around anymore, but he lets it be known that, more than probably, it's time to shuffle off. Tomorrow will probably be his last final. These next eight weeks will probably bring his last games. More than probably.

His hip is sore. He played at Hibs on Saturday and the pitch was heavy and Hibs were light and fast. He's had a couple of flights since then and between one thing and another all the aches and pains that come with a decade and a half of warrior work are announcing themselves to him.

He's eased off since United ended. Celtic play one game a week and his body has time mostly to recover naturally. He doesn't do yoga anymore and it doesn't require a team of mechanics to get him on to the grid for games.

He's due a stock take on his life come the summer. He feels that if he's going to do something he should do it properly. He's doing what he can now for Celtic, but with his family in Manchester and him working in Glasgow he notices that any time he gets home he's starting to make plans for getting back.

"It would either be moving lock, stock and barrel to Glasgow or packing it in. What I'm doing now I couldn't do next year, especially if we were in Europe next year. I have to see how my body is - even if I had stayed at United I always intended weighing my options up and going to see the specialist. I spoke to the Celtic doctor about that when I signed, that was my plan. I'll see in the summer."

He sounds mentally well prepared for bowing out.

"Yeah. Yeah. There's no way I enjoy the game as much as I used to. I know a lot of that is down to the aches and pains, everyone gets them. When I had the hip operation three or four years ago the surgeon made me aware of the consequences the longer I play. I have to take that on board.

"The way my footballing career has gone with things over the last few months I will have to put my family first. I have put football first always. I tended to always do that, especially at United. I've promised that come this summer I will weigh myself up physically and do what is best for my wife and kids."

It sounds like 60 per cent of a declaration to quit. Later in conversation he compares Manchester United to an old girlfriend. They both knew when it was over. Were Celtic a rebound girlfriend she should be reading these paragraphs as one of those speeches which begin, "it isn't you, it's me".

He smiles. "I'll wait till summer. I'll listen to people and see what's best for my family. I have to be fair to Celtic as well. If you're coming and going. My kids are at an important age - Shannon, she's at the college in the school and there's exams, all these things coming into it. After what happened at United, I'd never put football before my family again. I had done that for many years. I know that the younger two especially miss me when I'm away."

So the implications are clear. He didn't go abroad last November, he says, because he wouldn't move the family. He wouldn't play Premiership for anyone else. He chose Celtic as old flames who offered challenge. If summer brings the necessity of moving the family northwards it's unlikely that anything will have changed.

Clyde debacle not

a very bonnie start

He's easy enough with it. He's learning to relax a little bit. Famously, infamously, notoriously even, his debut for Celtic was the football equivalent of Titanic meeting iceberg. The unsinkable sank. The unthinkable came to pass. The Scottish Cup holders beaten 2-1 by first division side Clyde at Broadwood. A humiliation?

"Not really. It was always going to be strange. I'd arranged to drive back to Manchester after the match. That was a pretty long drive. I'm sure I didn't put the lights on. I was in a trance all the way, but listen, if you don't play well or start slowly there's a chance of getting beaten. You just move on. It wasn't an embarrassment, no.

"It was a disaster for the team and the club. Not personally any worse than for them. You have your pride, you want to win every match, but I've never won a match on my own and I've never lost a match on my own."

He says, as he often does, he would prefer a simple life, but he accepts that part of his journey is to provoke headlines or fuss. So his arrival at Celtic proved no less sensational than his departure from United. C'est la vie.

This strange appendix to his career won't alter his legacy. He was captain of Manchester United during their greatest era. He was the Premiership's - and probably Europe's - greatest midfielder. He was United. As the cliché which describes their relationship puts it, he was Alex Ferguson's right hand.

Did severance hurt? "Hurt? No. No. No. It really didn't. Everybody I've met has been hurt by it. Family, friends, fans. I've always been . . . well, I've always known that side of football. Go back to Saipan, going back to when I was 15, 16 years of age, the coldness of the game, I've always understood that side of it. I respected the manager's decision. He was right. We'd come to the end.

"Do I agree with the timing of it? Could I have stayed on a bit . . . the easiest thing would have been to stay till the summer. The option was there for me, I could have just said, 'look I'm seeing out my contract till the summer'. The manager knows my form, he knows I wasn't going to be saying, 'aw, please can I stay to the summer'. I'd had enough. I'd come to the end with the manager. And with Carlos (Queiroz, United's assistant manager). It was time."

He had felt for a while it was over, but he knew for certain when he went to Alex Ferguson on a Thursday evening and asked him why he had been left out of the reserve side to play West Brom. Ferguson said he should speak with his agent Michael Kennedy. Keane went and cleared out his locker. When he got home with his boots in his hand his wife Theresa knew. All over bar the negotiating.

"There was a few incidents. People go on about this video thing. If they think that was the reason I left Man United they are sadly mistaken. There was a lot more went on than that. I've always been one for saying how I think it is, whether that be to players' faces or managers' faces, or to staff.

"Obviously, the next day (after his encounter with Ferguson) Michael Kennedy and David Gill were there. It had got to the stage where we couldn't even say it between ourselves we've come to the end. It was amicable. I think people are looking for different angles, but it was as simple as that.

"When we had the meeting on the Friday I could see David Gill already had the statements all prepared. The manager knows my form. He knew I'd want to do it with a bit of dignity. That's how I walked out. That's the reality of football. I've seen it happen to other players. I've seen Bryan Robson leave the club . . . Brucey (Steve Bruce) left out of cup final squads in last games for the club.

"I've been to cup finals with them left out and there's been an emotional speech at the end of it and their families have been upset and they haven't even been put on the bench. Their last game for Manchester United after the service they've given. I've always kept that in the back of my mind.

"That is how cold the game is. I wasn't expecting bouquets when I left. That's the way the road has been panned out for me, it was never going to be a nice ending and everyone shaking hands and hugs and kisses and Carlos and the staff. It wasn't ever going to pan out."

Would you have preferred when you went to him about the WBA issue that he had said it to you straight out? "Again you have to ask the manager. Ask him."

Did you expect more from him at that stage? "No, not really. Again, I've seen other players go. Like Jaap Stam. There wasn't any anger or bitterness. There were other things that had gone on before it. We had come to the end. If you're going out with a girl you know when it's over. You just know when it's over. It was November, December, I was just back from a broken foot. There's no good time."

Would you have handled it differently if you were the manager? "Most certainly, yeah, but we all have our own ideas and opinions. I keep saying though, I think he'll always do what's best for Man United. It was the right thing for Manchester United."

What would you have done differently? "Well, that's irrelevant now. If I was a manager I'd have different ways of doing things. I'm not manager of Man United."

Will you be? "Aw no. Jesus. I don't know. I'll look at it this summer. I'll do a badge. These things creep up on you, the idea of being a manager or a coach, as you get older you think, yeah, the challenge would be there, is already in my head. I've got two or three people I'd like to have on my staff!

"There were one or two differences of opinions. Different stuff. All these small things make the bigger picture. I agreed with him 100 per cent. He didn't surprise me or catch me off guard. I told Michael and I said, 'that's it'. He thought we could tidy things up. I said, 'no, that's it'.

"There is no bitterness. If anything I count my blessings I was there for 12 and a half years, nearly 500 games, fortunate to win a medal or two. I don't look back and think I was cut short. It was 12 and a half years. I was lucky. There's acceptance that it was time to move on."

There were friendships there too, though, weren't there. "Friendships? With who?" Alex Ferguson? "Nah. I don't think there were friendships. I don't go in for that."

You've never considered him your friend? "Ehm. There were moments. If you read my book there were times when the manager supported you, but the bottom line for most managers is they are looking after themselves. I could talk about how great United were and how the manager supported me, but the bottom line is when it was time to go . . . if I was 27 or 28 and we had these disagreements I'd still be there now. Obviously, they knew that maybe I was past it. I've never kidded myself on that, that there would be a long-lasting friendship."

So, any friends still there? "I'm in contact with one or two of the lads. Just through texts. You can't count that really, though. It's too easy!"

When he leaves football he says he will be able to count on the fingers of one hand the people he will keep in touch with. Tony Loughlin, his old flatmate when he was at Forest, remains his best friend in the game. And a few of the lads from Rockmount. Derek Clarke, the goalie, was over last week for the Hibs game. They met up in Edinburgh. "I suppose they are different friendships those guys you make friends with when you are younger."

Not missing the Premiership at all

He says he misses the Premiership not one whit. When it all ended at United his dilemma was less who to play for and more whether to play at all. He reiterates he was never going to play in the Premiership again and that going abroad wasn't a genuine option for his family. So Celtic fitted emotionally as well as vocationally.

Glasgow is more of a goldfish bowl for him than Manchester was and as he's gotten older he's gotten more jealous of his privacy. It's a rare day when he meets a person who doesn't want something from him. "Going back to Saipan and that time, it got worse. You could say I brought that on myself, but I think the family would be ready for something different now. I couldn't have played for two worse clubs in terms of potential intrusion. Then again, it's dangerous to make too many plans. A while ago I thought I'd see out the season at United!"

At Celtic, he likes the reduced intensity of games where they have a lot of possession. He enjoys the players and pals mainly with Dion Dublin with whom he shares up-to-the-minute flight information on the Manchester-Glasgow route.

"It's different banter at Celtic. You rip each other, but it's not cutting edge."

Maybe you're just going soft? "That might be a good thing. I enjoy it anyway."

He is untouched so far by Glasgow's sectarian divide. Commuting by air means he takes pot luck with the persuasion of his taxi drivers. "The Rangers taxi drivers would always be asking me about their team. Where are Rangers going wrong? I say to them that the journey's not long enough to go through it all.

"It's only half an hour from the airport to Parkhead. I'm joking! I've enjoyed that. Rangers fans have been all right. It was nice to see them paying respects to Jimmy Johnstone. I've gone with an open mind."

And that's it. Keane in the twilight time. Some fires still burn. He says he'll go to his grave believing Steve Staunton and co were wrong to do that press conference in Saipan, but, "hopefully Stan will do well".

The euphoria which swept the place after the friendly victory over Sweden sets him on an old theme. From the beginning of his professional interest, from the game against the Dutch in 1990 to the game against Spain in 2002 he believes we have been too happy to settle for too little.

He concedes that returning to play for Ireland caused some difficulties at Manchester United. Brian Kerr "could have done with more support from different people", but his departure was part of the coldness of the game.

He spends his day working and fronting tirelessly for the Irish Guide Dogs Association. His testimonial on May 9th looks like being a farewell. He's awkward with the fuss, but looking forward to a time of relaxation.

"It might be nice to do something completely different. These last few years have drained me. I learned more in the five weeks when I was out of football than I have in a long time."

And, hey presto, time is up. He heads out once more into a world where people still, for another while at least, want something from him.