Chick Young's column

By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

The marketing department at Celtic Park will be up for it, big time. Add Roy Keane to Nakamura and Du Wei and it's only a matter of time before everyone on the planet from Eskimos to tribesmen on the plains of the Serengeti will be wearing green and white hoops.

And, whatever else Roy Keane is, he is some player. His performance against Rangers at Old Trafford in the Champions' League was like that of a big boy in the primary kids' playground.

He served his apprenticeship under the best manager these islands have ever produced, Brian Clough, at Nottingham Forest and that means he was put right at the start.

So why the big pause? Why isn't the Irishman being wheeled out at Parkhead even now?

Roy Keane could be a disruptive influence at Celtic

If, as some would suggest, he is not a man motivated by money - and, right enough, neither would I be if I had about £30m swilling about in my building society account - then why won't he agree to sign up for Celtic for a working man's wage?

Has my colleague from the BBC who interviewed Brian Quinn and asked him if Celtic would be prepared to match Manchester United's 90 grand a week no compassion?

Does he not know that the managing director is about to undergo heart surgery? The thought of paying a player that kind of money could have knocked him horizontal. And understandably too.

The truth about the Keane situation is that Celtic should tread carefully here.

They announced on the eve of the Old Firm game that they would not be averse to talking to the controversial 34-year-old if he wanted to talk to them.

I thought they were being awfully clever. A wee bit of spin doctoring perhaps? A ploy to trigger people talking about the club while all the spotlight was on Ibrox and events there. But I couldn't see it being much more than that.

Gordon Strachan had bags of no comment when it came to me trying to grill him about the potential signing of Keane.

Major shareholder Dermot Desmond will want him, that's for sure. Big fan, big mate. And what Mr Desmond wants, Mr Desmond tends to get.

But will the manager really greet Roy Keane with open arms?

Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon are running a happy ship

Would the money not best be spent in extending the contract of Stilian Petrov, or in investing on scouring Europe for another young talent of his ilk? Keane's personality, presence and past may actually take more away from the Celtic dressing-room than they would add.

At best, it has to be a gamble. Alex Ferguson doesn't show the door to players who are useful to him and, in the final analysis, Parkhead should not be treated as a rest home to players who want to wrap up their career at the club of their boyhood dreams.

Scottish football isn't peppered with too many red sunsets of grand old stars coming here in their dotage for a farewell tour that actually had a rousing finale.

Andy Gray at Rangers and Ian Wright at Celtic. Or Stevie Archibald at St Mirren. They haven't made the relevant halls of fame.

To be fair to Keane, he probably still has more to offer than those chaps had and, apart from the rather nasty habit of occasionally hospitalising opponents, he remains some player.

That should be the end of the argument. But, with Roy Keane, it is somehow different.

Gordon Strachan has done a magnificent job in pulling the dressing-room together. Suddenly, Celtic are brothers in arm.

And Roy the would-be Bhoy might just upset that happy home.