IF ONE WAS was to compare the origins of the managerial careers of Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane, then Ferguson – with East Sterling and St Mirren – took the road less travelled.

Keane is still the voyager but he has trodden down more familiar paths and is struggling to find his way.

He is young enough to overcome these struggles. But he would do well to examine the early years that shaped Ferguson and heed some lessons.

By his own admission, Fergie has mellowed with age. His wild anger in his early days as a manger became more subdued and surgical as time passed. He motivated players by putting an arm around some and by slaughtering others.

He speaks in his autobiography of the Aberdeen player John Hewitt, “I knew if I looked at John at a team talk he would fold up. I never involved him in a team talk because I knew it could destroy him. He was really scared of me” So he encouraged him. Conversely he checked the ego of others when he needed to.

That is the bedrock of successful management. Yet the suspicion remains that Keane has yet to embrace it. He seems to have a default way of motivating his players and it is an earful. Jonathan Walters said after leaving Ipswich for Stoke that “Even now I speak to the lads at Ipswich and when they get beat, well, we know what’s been said before we even speak to anyone. We guess, ‘Aye, this is what’s been said this week’ and we ring all the lads and that’s what happened. It’s eggshells all the time.”

If it is a constant hammering than the message is lost. Keane’s anger is a broad sword to the Ferguson scalpel. Players today will just shrug their shoulders and call their agent.  He needs to accept that attitudes have changed.

Here he is at a disadvantage. His enormous profile as a player and his fascinating character ensured much ink when he took the plunge into management. Ferguson was a failed player who took on East Stirling when he started. Keane landed with a sleeping giant in Sunderland and now has arguably another one in Ipswich.

He can compensate for this however with his magnetic personality. Every press conference of his is jammed with razor-sharp quips. When he speaks, he speaks honestly and possesses a ability for withering one-liners. He can use this to help his players.  Ferguson religiously defends his players in public no matter the indiscretion. Keane’s constant transfer talk and public rebukes can only make his players nervous. He should use his ability on the camera to infuse his players with confidence.

Keane has already lasted longer than Ferguson did at his first club. Ferguson was fired at his second. Only with his third did the road become clear and lessons learned along make it an easier path.

Should Keane learn from his mistakes and from his mentor then his road as a manger will be easier to travel and it may make all the difference.