Roy Keane has "a lot to think about" after being approached about the vacant Celtic manager's position according to Republic of Ireland Martin O'Neill but the northerner says he would like his assistant to stay on and insisted the 42-year-old would not take any decision to walk away from his current position lightly.

O'Neill confirmed he had been contacted by Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond on Tuesday evening and asked for his opinion on Keane's suitability to succeed Neil Lennon.

Having apparently been given a highly positive impression of the former Manchester United midfielder, Desmond appears to have spoken directly with Keane on Wednesday evening, with the Corkman then talking the matter over with O’Neill yesterday morning and again before training.

General point

“I know Dermot; he was the one that made me the manager at Celtic,” said O’Neill last night. “I’ve known Dermot a long time and, naturally, I just think that Roy . . . I think he was asking in a general point about Roy’s managerial quality. I’ve often said here that he’ll be a manager again himself.

“I just didn’t expect it that quickly. Again, it was only an informal discussion he was having. I don’t know the ins and outs of it; I don’t know, I think they do have a list of people they’re speaking to and, you never know, they might speak to someone else.”

Celtic, indeed, insisted in a statement last night they were speaking with "a number of excellent candidates" but it seems at least two of the previous frontrunners for the job – Malky Mackay and Owen Coyle – have heard nothing in a week and so it does seem Keane is in pole position.

O’Neill said that in addition to talks about the Celtic job, which he repeatedly described as “informal”, the former Sunderland and Ipswich boss was also considering what he said was a number of other options from British clubs (West Brom and Southampton are both looking to recruit) but that despite all the sudden attention, he hopes Keane will stay on in his current role.

Enjoying this

“I want him to stay because I think it would be great,” he said. “I am enjoying this immensely but it’s something that has taken me a little bit of time to get used to.

“With this period, it feels as if it’s a full time job when you’re working on a daily basis and that’s been terrific and I think Roy feels that himself. We’ve only had four games with the squad but he’s been excellent and I don’t think that he’d give that up lightly.”

The Ireland manager also acknowledged the pressure Keane would be letting himself in for if he did take on the Celtic job, with Champions League qualifiers that might effectively define the new man’s first season in charge scheduled for the middle of July.

"It was only brought home to me the other day when Anthony Stokes was mentioning that he would not be coming with us to America because he would have had no break because Celtic are back training very, very quickly. I'd forgotten they were back so early because they're involved in those big games.

“So, if he was actually offered the job then he’ll have things to consider. The very obvious thing (being) the speed at which he would go into a big football club and have big, big game right on his doorstep.”

He said he would talk the whole thing over with Keane who, he said, “had delivered in quantity for me” and he hoped he would stay, jokinghe would “fight to keep him”.

Unlikely

How hard he will have to, or be willing to, fight remains to be seen, with Keane possibly deciding it is not the right next move for him, while O’Neill would be unlikely to be willing to talk him out of an opportunity that might not come again.

Some of those who known Keane and were familiar with his six-month spell as a player with Celtic have suggested he might indeed be reluctant to take the job having never been comfortable living in Glasgow – it is said he often stayed in Edinburgh – and he was not impressed by the standard of football in the SPL.

As O’Neill readily acknowledged, however, “offers like that do not come along very often,” and even the possibility of managing in the Champions League group stages in just a few months time would be quite a coup for a man who was hard -pressed not so long ago to be offered another Championship job.

In the meantime, O’Neill said he “fully expects” Keane to be on the plan to London this afternoon for tomorrow’s game against Italy in Craven Cottage.

As for America, he said, “we’ll take it day by day”.