It's make or break time for Roy Keane.

By now he will have his feet under the proverbial table at Portman Road. He will have been through his squad, had a look at the resources available to him and be laying plans for an immediate assault on the Premier League.But managing Ipswich is more than just another job for Keane; it is the job that will decide whether he really does have what it takes to be a top-class manager.

The Irishman was a relative success at Sunderland. He got them up to the Premier League and kept them there. But when results started going against him, he walked away.

That led many people, myself included, to question whether or not he has the bottle to manage at the highest level. There have been suggestions it was a dispute with a new director at the club that led to his departure.

However, the public perception remains that when the going got tough, the tough went home to walk the dog. A perception that was already in place when he walked out on Ireland just days before the World Cup.

Proving that he isn't a serial quitter is Keane's first task. If he does want a career in top-flight management he is going to have to show he is capable of taking the rough with the smooth.

And the chances are he will get a bit of rough at Ipswich. They have a great history and a rich owner who is prepared to throw money at the club. But they have been flopping around in the Championship for years now and need revamping from top to bottom.

I think Keane is more than capable of becoming as successful off the pitch as he was on it. It may have gone wrong towards the end at Sunderland, but only after it initially went right.

If all goes according to plan at Ipswich and he does guide them to the promised land of the top flight, his reputation will be enhanced. No longer will people be able to consider him a one-hit wonder.

And that will set him up nicely for the job I think he is really after. One that is currently filled by a certain Alex somebody or other.

Two-tiered madness

It seems the Premier League is not happy unless it comes up with one ludicrous plan a year aimed at sucking the life out of professional football.

Last year we had the Premier League's outrageous 39th game proposal which was essentially a plan to tap into foreign cash by destroying the structure, set-up and logic of top-flight football.

Not only could it have distorted the title and relegation issues, but it was also a logistical nightmare and would have meant thousands of fans paying thousands of pounds to travel thousands of miles to watch a 'home' game.

Luckily, the dissenters made their views clear and the idea was shelved, although I still expect the top clubs to dust it off the next time their profit and loss sheets look a little depleted.

However, if you thought the postponement of that particular plan meant the top clubs were happy with their lot, you are sadly mistaken.

Because plans are now brewing to shake the game up yet again - by expanding the Premier League to 36 teams and splitting it into two divisions.

At first glance this scheme doesn't sound that bad. The huge revenue that the top clubs get from television rights would be split more evenly between 36 teams instead of the current 20.

But when you get down to the nitty-gritty of the proposal, which is being put forward by Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, you realise this is not about protecting smaller teams as much as it is about generating extra cash and making the rich richer.

For a start, promotion from the football league to the second tier of the Premiership would be limited to one team a season. So the remaining 56 clubs would be fighting each other for just one chance every year to reach the promised land.

Secondly, the scheme would see Celtic and Rangers included in the Premier League. The most obvious problem with this, and I feel I don't really need to point it out to you, is that they aren't particularly English.

Which automatically makes it feel very wong.

More importantly, however, moving the two Glaswegian giants out of Scottish football and into English would effectively destroy the game north of the border, where many smaller teams rely on the pull of the big two for revenue.

Also it would mean two English teams losing their places in the revamped two-tier Premier League to make way for Celtic and Rangers. That is totally unacceptable.

The final element of insanity in Gartside's plan is that the teams that make up the new second division would be chosen not on current league position but on their size and ability to attract large crowds.

Without doubt, that is the single most disgusting, unfair and disciminatory suggestion regarding football it has ever been my misfortune to hear.

It is, unquestionably, a case of pure greed. Gartside only wants the bigger teams in his new super league so poxy clubs like his own get bigger attendances. Pathetic.

According to reports, the main aim behind the scheme is to ensure that mid-table Premiership teams like Bolton, for example, have greater financial security if they get relegated.

To be frank, I don't care about the security of relegated teams.

If they are stupid enough to overspend chasing the Premiership dream then it is entirely their fault.

The riches on offer to top-flight teams are more than enough to keep any seriously-run team rolling in cash. It is up to them how much they spend to stay there. Look at Hull, for example; they went up in a debt-free position and have only spent the extra they have earned. If they were to get relegated they would be perfectly able to not only survive but thrive back in the football league.

At this stage, Gartside's idea is little more than that. It hasn't even been given a place on the official Premier League agenda, although it is provoking plenty of discussion from people at all levels of the game.

On hearing about it I am sure the bigger clubs initially thought the idea was a bad one. After all, it meant sharing their cake between more clubs. However, the Celtic and Rangers move was surely only included as a sweetener for the giants who would get four more huge matches a season to exploit.

If this plan ever sees the light of day then it will not just be another nail in the coffin of football as we know it. It will be the final nail.

While it may be greed that kills football, it will be Gartside that buries it.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com