Cats boss ready to give youth a chance

Aug 29 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

ROY Keane has promised Sunderland’s youngsters they will get their chance this season, but he is not prepared to sell fringe players on the cheap to make way for them.

The Irishman has been frustrated by the unwillingness of some of his unwanted players to leave this summer but, after rejecting bids for Danny Higginbotham and Dickson Etuhu this week, he will not allow anyone to leave at a cut price.

The Wearsiders have signed nine players since last season but as yet have not sold any. Everyone who has left has either been released or gone out on loan. But whether he clears the decks or not, Keane has promised to give his youth-teamers their head.

“Without a shadow of doubt,” he said when asked. “I’d be very surprised if two or three don’t get involved in the next couple of months. One or two could be involved on Sunday on the bench.

“There are one or two good young players coming through who I’d be quite happy to get involved. They certainly wouldn’t have been ready last year.”

Keane signed six players days after taking the job and later admitted his squad became unwieldy. After so much summer investment that could be a problem again but he has been under no pressure to sell.

“Hopefully I can use my experience to get the balance right but I’ve got three or four players who I certainly wouldn’t stand in their way if an offer came in.

“Different managers have different ideas as to whether they need 22 or 24 (players) but you can’t have players for the sake of it. I’m under no pressure to sell any players. We turned down an offer yesterday and it was well short. We’ve got to play hard-ball because every club I ring play hard-ball with me.”

Keane’s stance appears to be paying off. Although Wolves are yet to increase their £1.5m offer for Danny Higginbotham, Fulham are thought to be close to an agreement for Nigerian midfielder Etuhu – with reports last night suggesting he will have a medical in London today.

“There’s one or two areas where we’re stronger than others,” Keane added. “I certainly wouldn’t be looking to let any of my defenders go but the strikers is an area we’ve got to look at and we’ve got quite a few in the middle of the park so if certain offers came in we’d have to consider it. But if there’s nothing happening in the next few days in terms of players going out, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“I appreciate we’ve got a decent number of professionals at the football club and Niall (Quinn, the chairman) and Peter (Walker, chief executive) are quick to remind me of that, but there’s no great pressure to do anything unless I think a good offer comes in.

“We’ve got two offers on the table which don’t match my valuation of the players.” The added depth to Keane’s squad is already coming in useful with injuries mounting.

Steed Malbranque is expected to miss Sunday’s visit of Manchester City after a kick to his knee against Nottingham Forest and Kieran Richardson is a doubt. Djibril Cissé suffered cramp and was a pedestrian in the closing stages at the City Ground, while Anton Ferdinand will not be considered. Keane does not expect that to alter his plans, though.

“There’s one or two areas of the club which I think are very strong so if good offers come in, the injuries we’ve picked up wouldn’t affect that,” he said. “At this moment nothing will be happening but I’ve got one or two messages on my phone to ring certain managers, so it changes by the hour.”

Greg Halford, Russell Anderson, Roy O’Donovan, Trevor Carson, Ross Wallace and Arnau Caldentey Riera have been loaned out this term. Ian Harte, Stephen Wright, Andy Cole and Stanislav Varga, plus youngsters Gavin Donoghue, Jack Pelter and Billy Dennehy, were released at the end of the last campaign.

Meanwhile, Keane has promised “the full support of everyone at the club” for Michael Chopra after the forward was admitted to the Sporting Chance clinic following personal problems.