Times: RK Watch …
There were no empty crates of champagne at Sunderland’s training ground yesterday, no waft of Guinness or smouldering cigars. Roy Keane celebrated promotion by sipping green tea, walking his dog and thinking, plotting, planning. Triggs may have accepted a pat on the back, but his owner did not. If delight flared, it is already replaced by renewed determination.
While Wearside has finally succumbed to the persuasive vision of Niall Quinn, to Keane’s relentless, stylish brand of football, the manager is already training his unblinking stare at next season. The Barclays Premiership should invest in shin-pads.
Sunderland have been a byword for humiliation over recent years, but that definition no longer fits. Meetings are being scheduled with Quinn, the club’s chairman, and Peter Walker, the chief executive. Upwards of £25 million is expected to be released by Quinn’s Drumaville Consortium for use in the transfer market. Standards will soar, but does Keane wish to dispatch a message about the calibre of players that Sunderland now hope to attract? “Definitely, yeah.”
A beast has awoken. “I don’t mind expectations — I’d rather fans have high expectations than low,” Keane said. “It’s great for them that we’re going to the Premiership, but you won’t be hearing us saying that if we finish fourth from bottom next season, it’ll be an achievement. Far from it. I’ve heard other managers say that many a time, but you won’t be hearing it from me.
“We’re looking to go up there and make our mark and I think we can. Obviously, we’ll need to strengthen the squad. Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll have a chance to sit down with Niall and Peter and see what’s available. The hard work starts now. No time to relax. There’s no master plan and I’m not being a smart arse, but the target is to win games and do the best we can.”
Keane made reference to reshaping Sunderland’s entire defence, where Danny Simpson and Jonny Evans — whose form has been a revelation — are nearing the end of a loan spell from Manchester United, while Nyron Nosworthy and Danny Collins have been playing out of position. “We’re not going up to struggle, but we need to strengthen,” he said. “I don’t kid myself we could do well with the squad we’ve got.”
“Not particularly,” was Keane’s response when asked if he was enjoying his new profession, but “relaxed” discussions about extending his three-year contract by two more seasons have already begun. “At this time of my life, it feels like the right thing to be doing,” he said. “I can understand that sort of stuff when other managers come out and say it’s like an addiction. Winning, especially. Winning. That’s addictive.”
Quinn, Keane and his staff have not just built a team, but changed the ethos of a downtrodden, sorrowful entity. “The first two or three months in the job, I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” Keane said. “It was mad, absolutely mad. I was sharing a rented house with Tony [Loughlin, his assistant], we were getting home at 7pm every night, hitting the brick wall and falling straight to sleep. We were so tired.
“We were getting pulled left, right and centre, sorting so much out, everything. It was a mad, mad few months. We knew it would be like that, because we wanted to change a lot of things around the club. I suppose it was like a crash course in management.” And yet credit is deflected. “I’ve done very little; people have to remember that. It’s about the players, fans, the board, the good people around me.”
Keane’s decision to forgo retirement — the comfort zone, as he would put it — has been vindicated. “The situation the club was in was part of the challenge of why I took the job,” he said. “There was no doubt it was a gamble by the club, but it was a gamble for me, too. I’m sure other jobs might have come my way, but it’s worked out OK for both us.”
