Quinn can take credit for key calls

SUNDERLAND manager Roy Keane was the toast of Wearside last night after dragging the club back into the Premiership at the first attempt.

The 35-year-old Cork man has taken just eight months to make a major impact in management, although his achievement will perhaps come as little surprise to those who have witnessed his intensity and will to win at close hand over the last 15 years or so.

However, while Keane’s status on Wearside has elevated him to the rank of honorary Mackem, he would be the first to acknowledge that but for the courage, vision and persistence of another favourite adopted son, the celebrations might not have happened.

Niall Quinn was the man who, as the Black Cats hurtled towards the Premiership trapdoor last season, decided enough was enough.

It was he who brokered the deal with predecessor Bob Murray which led to the club’s change of ownership, he who put together the Drumaville consortium which came up with the money, he who managed to restructure the club’s debt and he who, when his efforts to recruit a top-class manager stalled, stepped into the breach and reluctantly did the job himself.

But more importantly it was Quinn who, having received an initial refusal from former international team-mate Keane and then having failed to land the likes of Martin O’Neill and Sam Allardyce, refused to take no for an answer.

The consensus at the time was that it could go one of two ways: it would either be disastrous appointment, or it would be a master-stroke.

Quinn never had any doubts.

“It was a major responsibility, a gamble in many people’s eyes and a long shot, but not in mine. If you stick to the simple things – and the simple things I looked at when I was convincing investors to get into this were the passion needed to be restored, belief needed to be brought to the area and the losing feeling needed to be gone, we needed a winner.

“You add those three things up and you pick Roy Keane, and he sits on top of them all. He could be considered the daddy of all those three things in the last 10, 15 years.

“But what I have been pretty much staggered by is how good he is at his job. That has to go on the record.”

If the decision to appoint Keane has been the central one in Sunderland’s astonishing revival, it has by no means the only good one made at the Stadium of Light in the last few months.

Quinn knew after Championship defeats by Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth and Southend – which were followed by a Carling Cup second round exit at League Two Bury – got the season off to a dreadful start, that his temporary reign as manager could not go on.

“He (Keane) had a crap manager to follow, so it was not going to be that hard,” Quinn later said in typically self-deprecating fashion.

But once Keane was in place, the new regime backed him to the hilt, allowing him to make six signings on the final day of the summer transfer window as the experience of Dwight Yorke, Graham Kavanagh, Stanislav Varga and David Connolly and the promise of Liam Miller and Ross Wallace was added to the mix.

In the circumstances, it was little surprise that, despite winning his first two games at Derby and Leeds, it took Keane time to mould his team and instil the belief which fuelled him throughout his playing days.

But crucially, Quinn’s arm’s length approach allowed him to stamp his authority upon the squad and the response was remarkable.

The Black Cats did not climb into the top half of the table until December 16, and had not made the top six by the middle of February.

In the meantime, however, Quinn had allowed his manager to reshuffle once again as key men Jonny Evans and Carlos Edwards arrived on Wearside.

A 2-0 victory at Oakwell, despite the absence of the latecomers, saw Sunderland climb into the top three and a 2-1 home win over Wolves on April 7 put them into the automatic promotion spots for the first time.

Now the rebirth of a club which has suffered more than its fair share of heartache in recent years has reached another milestone.

But a combination of Keane’s desire, Quinn’s commitment and Drumaville’s cash may mean the story has only just begun.