Which is a bit of a turnaround because it used to be ‘Roy Keane to launch for Patrick Vieira’. And vice versa. But a lot of today’s newspapers have the same story that Keano is desperate to bring his old nemesis to the Stadium of Light to boss Sunderland’s midfield.

The Frenchman is currently in Jose Mourinho’s squad at Inter Milan, but has not had anywhere near the impact in Serie A that he had in the Premier League with Arsenal. The Sunderland manager has refused to rule out a move. He said: “If I believe this player can give us something, I’m sure the board would back us. We’re always making enquiries about lots of players.

“How great is he? I don’t know. I don’t go down that road. I just know he was a bloody good player. He had good leadership skills, too. But not as good as mine!”

It has obviously been a while since Vieira was in England – the BBC has forgotten how to spell his surname!