Go easy on Dwight, says Keane

Oct 7 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

ROY Keane had to tell some of his Sunderland players to take it easy last week and he hopes Trinidad and Tobago take a similar approach with the oldest of them, Dwight Yorke, in the coming days.

The veteran midfielder made his first club appearance this season at home to Arsenal on Saturday and has now jetted off for World Cup qualifiers against Guatemala and the United States. It seems inevitable the man who turned 37 last week will be asked to play in both.

The Trinidad and Tobago captain was one of a group of players anxious to top up their match-fitness for the reserves against Middlesbrough last week, but Keane was not interested. “He wanted to play for the reserves and I said, ‘No, you train well and hard, you will play in the first team, never mind the reserves’,” said Keane, three months Yorke’s senior. “He took his chance against Arsenal. Two or three wanted to play in the reserves, I said no. The reserves have a good group and I didn’t want to mess it around too much. I keep saying to the first team lads, ‘Play in the first team not the reserves.’”

Yorke’s appearance was his first in a Sunderland shirt since the last time they entertained Arsenal, on the final weekend of last season. Playing a footballing side like the Gunners in a five-man midfield brings the best out of the

ex-striker, who dictated the pace of the game from in front of the back four. Keane, who took up a similar role towards the end of his playing days, was suitably impressed.

“Can he do a job for us sitting in the middle of the park? 100% he can,” he said. “That is up to Yorkie. It suits having two (central midfielders) in front of him, he can be clever, he has the experience, he can speak to other players. He is a good voice and a good character. He brings a good package and when I watched him in training last week, I thought, ‘Yup Yorkie deserves his little chance’.

“But can he play every game? Absolutely not.” Keane’s stance is entirely consistent with his comments about the same player in mid-September.

“He (Yorke) could hardly play two games in three or four days,” he said then. “International managers even rest younger players in those circumstances, so do club managers. Alex Ferguson used to do that with certain players. He did it with me, when I was 30, 31 years of age.”

Those comments came amid the political storm caused by Yorke’s last international appearance. He was reluctantly called back after one match for his country – his first for anyone since a broken cheekbone, prompting a war of words between Keane and the Trinidadian vice-president of Fifa Jack Warner.

Keane was labelled “disrespectful”, the boss called his accuser a “clown”. It provides the backdrop to the latest round of internationals though Yorke apart, Keane believes his players have got off relatively lightly.

“I dropped him (Yorke) off on Sunday,” Keane revealed. “Fingers crossed they will all come back. We are not too bad with lads on silly flights. The only one slightly struggling will be Yorkie when he gets back. If he gets back.”

Kenwyne Jones will train with T&T this week, despite not yet being ready to represent his country. The striker, who could return from a serious knee injury against Newcastle United, has been given compassionate leave to attend a family funeral.

He will be accompanied by a club physio.