Tom Humphries LockerRoomIt's back! God's gift to columnists. The Roy Keane affair. Straight in. Breathless. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. (Got that, Alex?) Do you remember that long, stalling period in the peace process when the British government sat on its hands and said again and again that it needed clarification. Well, maybe all peace processes reach that stage.

You can't know what Roy Keane was up to last week in Dublin but it might have been anything. Perhaps sitting in front of an Irish audience, looking at Irish hacks, in a setting that was supposed to be non-sporting, he thought he'd do himself a favour and speak in a more thoughtful, more positive way about his relationship with the Irish team.

And maybe not. Maybe he was dipping his toe in the waters of general public reaction to see if a shoal of piranhas would make the surface boil as they stripped his flesh away.

Perhaps it was a Machiavellian ruse to put pressure on Brian Kerr. Who knows how things were left after the Scotland business? Instead of picking up a phone and calling Kerr perhaps it seemed easier to stand on a hill and attract his attention through semaphore.

It could be too that he just had an unguarded moment, found himself thinking aloud and woke up the next morning to find the nation apparently back on the brink of civil war.

You need clarification, don't you. You need to know what's what before you expend more emotional energy on Roy-and-the-green-jersey business. You deserve clarification too. Roy Keane owes us a definitive ending, not the indulgence of haunting Irish teams like a ghost for another few years.

Perhaps the wish is father to the thought but this column would like to think that last week was Keane's way of taking a step back towards the fold. He is too smart and too shrewd not to have known the way his words would be pored over and analysed once they left his lips.

He will have known too that one breakfast table where his words would be examined with particular interest would be that of Alex Ferguson. Over the years the mentor/pupil/chip-off-the-old-block relationship between the two men has served Manchester United plc very well but Keane is smart enough to see that not only has Ferguson got his own distracting Irish problem at the moment but that there is a life beyond the shadow of Ferguson. And he's prickly enough not to like the public perception that Ferguson pulls his strings and pushes his buttons.

The dispute over which way to slice a race horse revealed a peculiar weakness in Ferguson which has never been apparent in Keane. Ferguson allowed himself become a virtual accessory for a bunch of rich guys, a trophy friend. He has allowed the ruins of those relationships to become a distraction. Keane, himself, has always been obsessively careful about not turning into any type of creature that might be socially incompatible with his Mayfield roots. Everything he does and says he views through the prism of the place he came from and by instinct knows how it would play there.

What of the block off which Keane is supposedly a chip? In the last few years we have seen Ferguson announce his retirement with curious self-aggrandisement a year before it actually happened, giving Man Utd a period with a lame-duck manager before Ferguson allowed his mind to be changed. The sight of Ferguson taking off his coat and hat and sitting back down at the table again wasn't edifying.

Nor has the business with the horse been good for the image of the man or the working of the club he serves. Besides, Keane has been at United so long that perhaps the hairdryer speeches and the boots-flying-at-Becks incidents have become a little tedious.

One more thing. Despite all the talk from United fans over the last few weeks about Man Utd Not Being For Sale At Any Price, being a Plc means precisely the opposite. Man Utd is for sale every day of the week. People trade in Man Utd. That puts a slightly different perspective on how United have conducted themselves in the matter of their captain's international career. He is an employee and he is an asset. They summon what arguments are necessary to protect that asset and prolong its lifespan.

Perhaps Roy Keane is asserting his independence. Perhaps his heart has other reasons.

I imagine (and that's all any of us can do) that Keane would genuinely like to play football for Ireland again. A part of his frustration with the Saipan experience was born of his wish to make the experience of the World Cup one of the crowning points of his career. For all the talk of the Champions League being "where it's at" for the modern professional, the business of putting on an international shirt is still something special, which explains why Keane has never been as eager as Ferguson to close the door on the business of playing for Ireland.

Next question of course is would you have him back if you were Brian Kerr. You'll answer most likely along the lines of where you lined up on the McCarthy-versus-Keane debate. If you think the player disgraced himself and let his team-mates down you'll scream Never! If you feel that part of management at a professional level is getting the best possible team on to the pitch the answer has to be Yes!

Certainly there are players within the Irish squad who wouldn't be rushing downstairs to the hotel lobby to hug Keane were he to return but the critical mass has altered. The Duffs and the Robbie Keanes have enough ambition to recognise that another two years of Roy Keane would be better than another two years without Roy Keane. He just makes teams he plays in play better.

And elsewhere in the squad there aren't many outsize personalities who will throw a hissy fit and announce that they are walking out that door. Part of wanting to play for Ireland as opposed to managing Ireland is the fact that you don't get to pick the team.

Besides, it's well within the compass of Brian Kerr's man-management skills to smooth over the return of Keane if needs be.

How Brian feels about the Scotland business is another matter, but given that he thought enough of Keane's ability to make the approach in the first place and was smart enough to see the hand of Alex Ferguson in the unfortunate outcome, perhaps there is little need to worry.

One thing's for sure. Any return would be a one-day wonder. There would be booing in Lansdowne Road but Keane has heard that before. But there would be the excitement too. Keane mentoring Miller in the heart of midfield? Keane back protecting the centre of defence with that old menace? Keane making those briskly efficient 15-yard passes that are his trademark? France coming to Dublin and Keane declaring war with a tackle like that which he made on Overmars in 2001?

If Roy Keane can get over it all, you can. Just consider the mystery of Ireland's flatness in Basel. You can get over it. We all can.