Micah Richards could not resist poking fun at Roy Keane after he was linked with the Sunderland job.
The League One side are looking for a new manager after Lee Johnson was sacked on Sunday on the back of a 6-0 defeat to Bolton which has seen them drop to third.
Among the frontrunners for the vacancy is Keane, along with the likes of John Terry, Mick McCarthy and Grant McCann, but the Black Cats have made the Manchester United legend their top target.
That would be a sensational return to management, who has become synonymous with Sky Sports as one of their most hard-hitting pundits.
In fact, the 50-year-old has not sat in the managerial hotseat since 2011 after a two-year stint at Ipswich Town while it was Sunderland that gave him his first job as a coach in 2006.
But fellow Sky Sports pundit Richards has joked that he could be joining him as his assistant manager at the Stadium of Light.
Twitter account ODDSbible tweeted a picture of Keane which had emblazoned the 1/1 odds of him taking the job at the League One outfit.
Tagging the post, it read: “Wonder if he’ll get @MicahRichards in as his assistant.”
The former Manchester City defender replied with a reference to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, saying: “Here we go @FabrizioRomano I have my stuff packed.”
Despite their completely opposite demeanours and pasts with either side of Manchester, Keane and Richards have formed an unlikely friendship.
And that has been to the enjoyment of the Sky Sports viewers, who have enjoyed the deadpan manner of Keane being met by Richards’ zealous enthusiasm.
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It has led to special episodes of just the two of them, including road trips, while fans have called for their own exclusive show.
But that could be canned if Keane lands the Sunderland job, 16 years after first being handed the reins at the club.
His first spell did not go exactly to plan, though, with his aggressive style of management quickly alienating a large section of the players.
The former Republic of Ireland international was sacked two years into his three-year contract with the club in the relegation zone by December.
Sunderland chiefs Niall Quinn and Ellis Short had fallen out with the combustible character but new owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman want to hold talks with Keane and view him as the ideal candidate to lift the club out of their current situation.
The Black Cats have spent four seasons in League One in their worst period of their entire history having spent just one other year that low in the football pyramid.
