Quinn: Roy isn’t a miracle worker

YOU hear a lot about pride, passion and potential on Wearside these days but there is still one “p” word that dare not speak its name.

“If I mention the word promotion, Roy Keane will have me up against the wall,” quips Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn.

Indeed, a member of the mainly Irish-based Drumaville consortium which has taken over the club, is even more explicit about deflecting premature talk of going up. Says Charlie Chawke: “If we finish half way up the league this year that would be great — then hopefully we’ll go up next year.”

Both men were talking after Saturday’s 1-1 home draw against Leicester City, a game which marked the end of Roy Keane’s 100% record as a rookie manager and which the new gaffer described as “a reality check” after three wins on the trot.

But bearing in mind that he took over a team which had begun the season with a five-game losing streak, the consensus at the Stadium of Light is that a draw on the back of a poor display — and a leap of 10 points in four outings — will do nicely.

Says Niall Quinn: “Three weeks ago, if we thought we’d have got to this point by the end of the season, we’d have been very pleased. But we do know the structures behind the scenes have to be a lot better. And that’s going to take time.

“We must stress that Roy isn’t a miracle worker, we have a lot of stuff that has to be altered to make us a better team but we’ll try and give him every support we can.

“It’s a balancing act for me because as chairman I want to tell everyone how great it is here but then I suddenly have to say, oh, hang on, we can’t mention the word promotion or anything like that.

“If I mention that word, Roy Keane will have me up against that wall so we’ll stay nice and quiet about it. I’m an optimistic person but I also understand football and there will be no time limit on Roy’s tenure here whatsoever. What’s he done here already is worth every day of the three-year contract we’ve given him.”

Publican Charlie Chawke admits that this season’s baptism of fire gave him a few sleepless nights.

“After a couple of weeks, I started to wake up at four in the morning,” he smiles. “It reminded me of a few of the pubs I bought down the line, when I’d be waking up wondering what the hell I’m going to get out of this mess. But we’re more relaxed now.

“We knew Niall could take us to the promised land and now we’ve got Roy on board, we’ve probably got the two foremost sporting people in Ireland. I think we have the biggest thing in Irish sport for a long time. We hope to take over from Man United now.”

But first there’s the task of winning over — or, more to the point, winning back — the locals.

Saturday’s gate increase of 10,000 for their last home game, suggests the club is already well on its way to doing just that.

“I look on them like the Munster rugby fans,” says Chawke. “They love their sport and all they want is a team they can be proud of. And I hope we will be able to provide that for them.”

Chawke says Keane was in the consortium’s thoughts “from the beginning” and adds that he never envisaged any problem in Keane and Quinn putting history behind them.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” he says. “Sure ye’re the people that kept that going. They’re the best of friends really. They hugged and made up and they have the one ambition and the one aim now. Together they’ll be great.”

Niall Quinn confirms the working relationship between the two men is running smoothly.

“It’s super. We did a deal on day one, last June, that I would do the side of the business that needed to be done by chairman and he would do the side of the business that needed to be done by a football manager. Where there’s crossover, we prompt each other and help each other and then we withdraw back to our posts. And it’s not a chairman looking down on a manager, it’s two people in partnership.”

Part of the grand plan at the Stadium of Light involves selling Sunderland as a football destination to the Irish.

Says Quinn: “We’re in Ireland over the next couple of weeks talking to various airlines, not just to get people from Dublin or Cork but to get people over here from Galway, Tralee and Derry. We want to put on something special for Irish people because we think they’ll enjoy their football here with Roy Keane and everything that happens in a city like this. We hope to give them a better alternative.”