"In Britain during the summer World Cup incident Keane was thought to be
the villain in Ireland. But it wasn't really like that. Actually in the Republic the
split was more 50-50 initially than anything else"
"It wasn't long though before the swing went very much in Keane's favour.
And it swung even more to him when the Irish lost their first two Euro 2004
qualifiers against Russia and Switzerland. Football fans are notoriously fickle
and when their team is suffering then they'll forget about anything very
quickly. I think the majority of fans are not bothered about what happened in
the summer now."
"If Roy Keane can come back and help the team get to the European
Championships then few people will worry any more about what went on in
Japan."
"The independent Genesis report commissioned to look into Ireland's World
Cup and the FAI's preparations were very damning. People suddenly turned
round after that was published and realised that maybe Roy was right after
all," says Twomey.
"Pro-Keane fans will say that he sacrificed himself and his own World Cup to
make a point. That's not a universal view. There are the anti-Keane faction
who say he let a personal conflict override everything else. But generally
people want him back now. The majority are in favour of him, wiping the slate
clean and pulling on the green shirt again."
"He should be playing for his country, the people and the fans and everyone
wants to know his decision as quickly as possible and they want that decision
to say Roy Keane will play for Ireland again."