Rumour: Former Man United hero Roy Keane reportedly in talks with Aston Villa

Roy Kean could assist Lambert at Villa Park

Roy Keane is set for talks with Aston Villa about becoming the assistant manager to Paul Lambert, according to Sky Sports, just a day after rejecting the opportunity to become head coach at Celtic.

Celtic had been heavily interested in bringing the current Republic of Ireland assistant to Parkhead to be their successor to Neil Lennon as manager of the Scottish giants, but Keane yesterday turned down the chance and withdrew himself from the running.

Aston Villa suffered a poor season last year as the threat of relegation loomed until late in the campaign, and that was compounded by the sacking of assistant Ian Culverhouse, as well as head of football operations Gary Karska, with disciplinary issues blighting their campaign in the end.

With a vacancy emerging in their coaching set-up, Villa have approached Keane to join their team as assistant to the beleaguered Lambert, with that being a role more favourable to Keane as it would allow him to continue in his role with Martin O’Neill’s Ireland side.

No official announcement will be made until the Republic of Ireland have completed their games in the United States, where they take on Costa Rica and Portugal in World Cup warm-up games for the two nations.

However, with Keane having opted to drop out of ITV’s punditry team for the Word Cup this summer, he is heavily expected to take on the post at Villa Park and assist Lambert into the 2014/15 season.