Following our report of the overnight rumour, which we didn’t want to believe, Sunderland have officially confirmed Roy Keane’s departure (see statement below).
This had earlier appeared at the Independent website:
Roy Keane and Sunderland have parted company this morning, according to reports on Wearside. The Sunderland players are understood to have been informed of Keane’s departure at a morning meeting.
Roy Keane did a great job leading us from bottom of the Championship to promotion as champions, and then keeping us up last season. The image shows you how, in an article for the Irish Mail on Sunday, I reported his massive achievement in that first season.
Question marks have rightly been raised this season. Some good players were signed but have not, in many cases, delivered; others of frankly Championship standard have also been signed, or have continued to figure despite showing limited Premier quality.
Team selections have sometimes been mystifying; Keano has self-evidently not been able to instill in his players anything like the steely qualities he showed in his own playing career.
Salut! Sunderland hoped he would stay and mould his squad into a decent team. We wish him well – and pray the board now chooses wisely.
***** ***** OFFICIAL CLUB STATEMENT ***** *****
After 2
Keane does indeed deserve huge respect. And no recriminations. Good luck to Ricky Sbragia, Neil Bailey and Dwight Yorke. They have massive shoes to fill.
I feel very sorry that Roy Keane has gone. It’s the end of the hope that we’d have a long period of stability and steady progress, like Manchester Utd under Alex Ferguson. As we know, Roy was rebuilding the club, not just the team. Clearly in the last few weeks he hasn’t been happy and this mood had transmitted to the players. It was the loss of confidence on Saturday that concerned me more than the result itself, as we were only heading downwards. For that reason, it’s probably better that Roy has gone, but I wish things had turned out differently. Thanks to Roy for everything he’s done for the club and I wish him well for the future. I will miss his understated, wry comments.