There's more than one Keano

IT WAS said that, back in his playing days with Leeds United, Jack Charlton used to keep a little black book in which were inscribed the names of certain opponents with whom he planned to settle a few scores.

In the light of the remarkable events of the year just ending, it’s tempting to think Roy Keane has his own little book, but this time a white one containing the names of all those former adversaries with whom he’s willing to mend fences.

First, back in August, there was the eye-rubbing sight of Keane and Niall Quinn, beaming for the cameras and shaking hands in the Stadium of Light, as the Dubliner and his Drumaville Consortium pulled off the coup of the year by persuading the Cork man to take up his first job in football management at Sunderland.