No time for relaxing as Keane looks to the future

May 10 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

This season Sunderland have achieved something beyond them for the last six years – beating Premier League relegation. But rather than “chill out”, Roy Keane has set his sights higher. Stuart Rayner reports.

DESPITE what Sunderland’s killjoy manager might say, one team will troop off the Stadium of Light pitch tomorrow full of the sense of a job well done, the other deeply disappointed.

Arsenal, third in the Premier League, Champions League quarter-finalists and League Cup semi-finalists will be full of regrets, Sunderland – light-years behind – will have the greater sense of satisfaction. In a week in which Kevin Keegan made it English football’s big talking point, it highlights the chasm in class that is the Premier League.

But as happy as the Black Cats supporters will be to finally end the cycle of Premier League relegations that has become their unwanted trademark, the man in the manager’s office is anything but content. The Roy Keane Guide to Management states you should never be happy when your supporters are and last week his players did their bit to help with a pitiful performance at the Reebok Stadium.

Such is Keane’s relentless drive for success, his critical eye is never off the future. Shortly after Derby County’s fans were partying in fancy dress at Ewood Park, smoke was billowing from the ears of the man in the Reebok Stadium’s away team dug-out as he watched lackadaisical Sunderland.

While the worst-record-breaking Rams players will probably be cheered to the rafters at Pride Park (an oxymoron if ever there was one this season) tomorrow, some of Keane’s flops might be given the strongest hint yet they will be plying their trade elsewhere next season when he pins up his team to face a Gunners side who were dreaming of a Premier League and European Cup double but ended with nothing.

“Did anyone change my mind at Bolton about whether they will be part of my plans next season? Not in terms of keeping them, but in terms of making my mind up that they’re leaving, one or two confirmed exactly why,” says Keane. “I hoped to see a different Sunderland last weekend because since I got the job we’ve always been under an element of pressure of some sort.

“I wanted to see Sunderland leave a good mark on the game. Players should have been confident and not giving the ball away when not under pressure. The disappointments after the game were probably just about fading on Thursday morning. That won’t be acceptable.

“People say it’s because you’ve got high standards, you’ve been at (Manchester) United. That’s nonsense. In the Premiership you can’t give the ball away willy-nilly when you’re not under pressure. That should come from the players themselves.

“Believe it or not, it might have been a good thing to happen to the club. Sometimes you’ve got to lose to win. You’ve got to move people on.”

There are two possible perspectives on Sunderland’s season, depending on the context.

The harsh view is the Black Cats spent over £40m last summer and got little in return.

The more sympathetic one is that Keane and chairman Niall Quinn did the necessary to keep them in the top-flight and after what has happened since Peter Reid’s back-to-back seventh-place finishes, their supporters should be grateful just for that. Twelve players signed last summer with mixed success. Two have already been shown the door, others are sure to follow. Craig Gordon has largely lived up to his reputation, Michael Chopra’s goals have probably paid back his £5.5m fee and Kenwyne Jones has drawn admiring glances.

Keane takes the fact that so much money has brought only a bottom-six finish as a sign of the times rather than cause for alarm. Newcastle United manager Keegan spoke this week of the difficulties of bridging the gap to the top four. Keane agrees and, starting from a much weaker base, has lowered his sights accordingly.

“£50m wouldn’t get you in the top four, nowhere near it,” Keane says. “Kevin Keegan’s a clever man, he knows the score. Anyone who disagrees with him doesn’t know football. I’m certainly not looking to compete with the top four next season but we want to be competing with the teams just ahead of us – the Man Citys, the Villa and Blackburns – on a more regular basis. We have done in one-off games but they’re the teams we want to be challenging next season.

“It’s not like we’ve got the back-up of four or five years where we’ve been able to build the squad up very slowly. I’m a lot wiser about what is required in the Premiership having had that experience as a manager. This was my first year (in the top flight) and I’ve learned a hell of a lot, I know what’s required for us to be a decent Premiership team.

“We want to be competing with the teams ahead of us in the table and in the cups. We look at the teams we’ve lost to narrowly and we’re not that far away but far enough away, I appreciate that. It’s a big enough gap for us not to chill out in the summer.”

As if he would ever do that.