Is Roy Keane the next Brian Clough?
Sunderland continue to surge up the Championship table having won ten of their last twelve games and drawn the other two. A fairly comfortable win against a tired WBA on Saturday has put them in fourth place and only one point adrift of second place and automatic promotion.
The last three games have been with clubs who were above them – Birmingham, Derby County and WBA – and only a last minute equalizer by Birmingham stopped Sunderland from taking a full nine points from these games.
Is Keane happy about this?
Not really “We’ve had three tough games and to be honest we should have beaten Birmingham, and we should have the nine points from them,â€? he said after Saturday’s game.
Keane expects 100% effort from his team (which is no surprise) but he is also demanding the results – which he is now getting regularly and is already thinking ahead to the close season with breaking news that Chairman Quinn will back him with a $25M transfer kitty if they win promotion.
Players he’s already lining up include John O’Shea and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from Manchester United. Spurs striker Robbie Keane, Celtic midfield man Thomas Gravesen and Liverpool forward Craig Bellamy are also on his list.
Certainly Keane should have no problem attracting top players should Sunderland be promoted.
Is Keane the next great British manager – perhaps even in the mould of the great Brian Clough?
Well maybe not – there’ll only ever be one Cloughie of course and he knew he was the best manager around with his famous quote “I certainly wouldn’t say I’m the best manager in the business, but I’m in the top one.”
Roy Keane certainly has the confidence and character to be a top manager and he’s not getting carried away one little bit with his instant success. Here are some of his comments after Saturday’s game.
“We should have killed the game off but I suppose that’s me being my usual critical self. We were on the back of some tough games and the lads dug deep, it was a very important result for us. The goal they got, it came from nothing really but we should have finished the game off well before then, we had the opportunities.
When you are away from home and you miss chances you are going to encourage the home side back into the game. Our lads dug deep and showed great character. I don’t think we played that well today but when you have characters like we have, it gives you a chance.
If we were a bit more ruthless in the attacking third we would have won it easily, but if you don’t do it you get punished. I wouldn’t say we got away with it today, we did enough to have won it comfortably. It’s all in the head, whoever believes they can do it, will. Our dressing room has that and we have to make sure we work hard every day.
We’ve got 10 games left and we need to keep the pressure on Derby and Birmingham”
At the very least Roy Keane seems to be an emerging successful manager much like Clough when he first managed Hartlepool in 1965 and got them promoted before moving on to manage Derby County in 1967. Hartlepool at that time were in the bottom two of the then fourth division nearly every season – so promotion for them was completely unexpected.
Keane has all it takes to become a successful manager: character, determination and even seemingly the man management skills some think he lacked as a player. He can and probably will make Sunderland a top team in the next few years – and what happens after that is anybody’s guess.
Being a Newcastle United lifetime fan I cannot wait for Alan Shearer to take over the Newcastle job – then the local Sunderland – Newcastle derby will take on a whole new meaning!
He will be the next Keane. The Great Manager. Not the next Clough. He is good enough to make a name for himself
Keane isn’t British, he’s Irish
I read somewhere he rubbished the Manager of the Month award he received, putting the importance of the players rather on himself for their form. He is going to be a legend off-pitch as well and I have no doubts he will manage Man Utd one day.
Person – you’re right – I stand corrected.
If he is not the best in the Championshop then who is?
If he is not the best Sunderland ’s manger for decades then who is?
If he is not Ferguson ’s next for United (not Lippi for sure) then who is?
Talking about keeping his players morale high and their d|ck hard;
Keano has made miracles as a young player who was under leathery pressure .When he first came in Manchester he was an alcoholic with no friends,but he made it.He bacame a champion.He trusted Roy Keane.
Now,he is a manager closer to players’ psychology more than any other manager in UK.All they need is trust them and show them teamwork and self-sacrifice is the only way to succeed.He made it agian.
Keane -and his hard Irish d|ck- trust Sunderland players and will lead them into top10 Premiership teams.Even if he ’s got to make populistic moves such as rubishing awards.
“there’ll only ever be one Cloughie”
Tell that to a Man U fan and he’ll retort with a “there is only one Keano”, whether player or manager!