Roy Keane; Resignation Bodes Ill For A Future In Management

Roy Keane's arrival at Sunderland Football Club in 2006 brought with it the usual bouts of optimism which accompany the appointment of a new boss, particularly one who had been so well decorated as a player.

Yet despite a relatively successful spell in charge at the Stadium Of Light, Keane has today (December 4) chosen to resign.  When the former Manchester United captain was appointed the Black Cats were loitering in the lower reaches of the Championship having got off to an abysmal start under the interim management of Nial Quinn.  When Quinn became chairman and appointed Keane to the helm results began to improve, culminating in the club's promotion to the Premier League in the summer of 2007.

There followed a 15th placed finish in the club's first season back in the top flight, and the general consensus was that there now existed a platform on which to build.  Keane was garnering a reputation for himself as one of the games' most promising young managers.  Accordingly, Quinn and his fellow board members sanctioned many new signings including former Liverpool and Marseille striker Djibril Cisse, El Hadji Diouf from Bolton Wanderers, the former Spurs trio of Teemu Tainio, Steed Malbranque and Pascal Chimbonda, aswell as the once highly-rated defender Anton Ferdinand from West Ham United.

Yet results haven't quite gone Keane's way of late, with a 4-1 home thrashing by Bolton at the weekend seemingly the camel crushing moment.  It left Sunderland in the bottom three and embroiled in a real fight for survival.  It turns out that Keane, the warrior who pulled up trees to drive his side's on to triumph as a player, didn't have the stomach for this particular battle.

So why?  We're led to believe by many Keane apologists that the former Republic of Ireland skipper became frustrated with his players.  It is argued that he could not stand slumming it with players who can never hope to reach the standards he set as a player.  He demanded that every player under his charge possess his drive and commitment to the cause, and adopt a mindset where nothing less than a win would do.

All very well and good, but it seems that Keane has missed something if these were indeed his demands on his players.  Surely management is about getting the best out of players of all kinds of differing abilities and attitudes, and that a successful team can still be moulded using these man-management tools.  What is success for a club like Sunderland anyway?  A Premier League title?  Qualification for the Champions League or UEFA Cup?  No.  Since Keane is such an apparent realist there can be no suggestion that he seriously thought Sunderland should be challenging the likes of his former club within the first two or three years of his tenure.  All of which makes you wonder why he took the job on.  Just what did he expect from a club whose last flirtation with the top division ended in record-breakingly dismal fashion?

If Keane can only handle players of similar or greater ability to himself then perhaps management is not for him.  This character flaw suggests that he could only tolerate running one of the Premier League's top four ships (and one in particular if he's getting to choose).  The trouble is that the top four sides just happen to be among the top clubs in Europe right now, a position they did not reach by appointing unproven, petulant rookies who get out when the going gets too tough.  We haven't seen any of them lining up to appoint Kevin Keegan in the wake of his latest Newcastle departure.

And unlike Keegan, Keane has not done quite enough to ensure the blind devotion of his fans.  Sunderland are already said to be lining up Sam Allardyce, proving that even a man with as big a name as Keane's can be forgotten quickly in the cut-throat world of football management.

By Stephen Orford

4 December 2008