Keane: Expect the worst

May 12 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

ROY Keane meets chairman Niall Quinn today to discuss his summer spending plans but the Black Cats manager has warned Sunderland fans to “expect the worst”.

The Wearsiders ended their season with a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal and the conversation Keane had with opposite number Arsene Wenger did nothing to fill him with optimism for the months to come.

Wenger was without AC Milan-bound Mathieu Flamini at the Stadium of Light and may have to replace a number of other stars, with his European rivals casting envious glances at Emmanuel Adebayor and Aleksandr Hleb among others.

With Wenger acknowledging it will be difficult for him to make the quality of signings Arsenal need, Keane argued Sunderland cannot get their hopes up.

The Black Cats are shopping in a different market to Champions League qualifiers Arsenal but, even so, Keane missed out on a number of

targets this time last year, including David Nugent, Chris Baird and Leighton Baines, and Stephen Hunt in January.

“I’m due to meet Niall in the next 24 hours,” the manager revealed. “Then I will have an idea of what kind of players and how many I can have.

“I’m not sure what the message will be yet. I’ve been focused on the games, that’s what I’ve been concentrating on.

“I’ve been discussing it with the Arsenal manager and it’s the same problem for him. There are not many quality players available and they are in a different situation to us but they are looking to improve their team. It was very, very tough last summer and I’m under no illusions it won’t be any easier this summer. We have to expect the worst.

“I want to step back from it. I wasted a lot of time and energy last summer and got too involved. I have to let the chief executive and chairman do their job but we can’t relax.”

Sunderland are yet to beat any of the so-called ‘Big Four’ teams under Keane, but the Irishman dismissed that statistic as an irrelevance.

“That was never going to make or break our season,” he argued. “We have generally got good results against teams around us. But if you look at the top four’s results I think Reading drew with (Manchester) United on the first day of the season, Birmingham City got a result against Arsenal and they’ve both gone down. We lost to United by the odd goal, we lost to Arsenal by the odd goal but they add up. We are close but not close enough yet.”

Keane, who dropped Kieran Richardson from the 16 yesterday after the midfielder was late for training this week, was pleased with his side’s performance against a Gunners side weakened by injury but who still had players of the quality of goalscorer Theo Walcott. “We played some good stuff,” he said. “The players who came in did very well. I’m pleased with the performance but we lost the game. We had chances and didn’t take them and you have to take them against the big teams.” Kenwyne Jones was replaced at half-time after Gilberto’s long-range shot struck him on the arm. The Trinidad and Tobago international will now miss his country’s high-profile friendly at home to England early next month but is expected back in time for pre-season training.

“Kenwyne chipped a bone in his wrist and will need a plaster cast,” Keane revealed. “He will be out of action for six weeks. We’re disappointed but fortunate it happened today because with that system we missed him.”

Sunderland finished the season in 15th place, their highest in the Premier League since back-to-back seventh-place finishes under Peter Reid.