Keane: it’s a coincidence that the players I’ve signed are Irish

SUNDERLAND boss Roy Keane was in a relaxed mood at Gannon Park in Malahide yesterday as his players began preparations for the three-match pre-season tour of Ireland, kicking off tonight against Bohemians at a sell-out Dalymount Park.

“We’ve had three days of hard training in Portugal and now the players are looking forward to these three games. They know there is a battle on for places. Then they have to show me what they can do in the matches against Cork City on Monday and Galway United on Wednesday.”

Keane is convinced that the signing of Irish international defender Paul McShane from West Brom for £2.5million (€3.71m) will be a real boost for the Black Cats in their first season back in the Premiership.

“I know Paul from his younger days at Manchester United and I keep saying that I’m looking for characters to come to the football club. Paul is certainly a character. Thank God the deal was done yesterday as I was keen to have Paul on the tour of Ireland. It was great to have him on the flight to Dublin.

“Paul will have competition and although he played a lot last year at right back for West Brom, from what I know of him and what he has done for Ireland, I think he is a very good centre half. He’s a winner, a tough lad and he will definitely add something to us.

“When he was a young lad at Old Trafford I spoke to him a few times and I do remember one occasion when he was particularly frustrated. I would not say that I was big pals with Paul, obviously there was a big age difference. I watched him closely, he worked hard, trained hard.

“I remember there were a few occasions when he was invited to train with the first team squad and, phew, he put in a few tackles. I couldn’t help thinking that he had a good chance of making a living out of the game. He is a tough lad. When we spoke to him he was very excited about coming to Sunderland and that plays a major part when signing any player.

“He will knock heads together, he will make tackles and put his body on the line. We need that for the Premiership.

“There will be times this season when we need that. I keep saying that we need people who will run through brick walls for you. Paul McShane will do that for you and there is no doubt about that.”

Asked whether McShane was in the same mould as himself when a young player, Keane refused to put any pressure on McShane although he did point out that tackling was a very important part of the modern game.

“We all like to see the skilful players and they put bums on seats. But you need to tackle. I like to tackle and Paul likes to tackle so maybe that’s where it starts and that’s where it ends.”

The Sunderland supremo was delighted by McShane’s performance in last season’s Euro 2008 draw with the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road — the defender’s debut under Steve Staunton.

“Paul played particularly well in that match but the whole team played well. On the other hand if you wanted to be over-critical then you could say that he could have got a bit tighter for their goal. Other than that he played very, very well.

“In order to be playing regularly for Ireland then he needs to be playing regularly for Sunderland. Hopefully we will all win. Paul will bring something to the squad and even having him on the flight this morning, it was great.”

Keane insisted that he was not deliberately going out to sign Irish players as chairman Niall Quinn’s greening of the Stadium of Light continues.

“I’m not really going out of my way to sign Irish players although of the players I have signed, a good few of them have been Irish. Again, I’m looking at players whom I know, lads I’ve played with or whom I’ve seen working.

I did not see too much of Paul but I did see him coming up through the ranks. I saw him plenty of times with the reserves so I knew what kind of lad he was.

“When you work with people at close quarters you know what you are going to get. And the character shows.

“Maybe it’s an added bonus that they are Irish. But it’s really a coincidence and the two or three players we are hoping to bring in over the next few weeks are not Irish.

“Look at Lawrie Sanchez with the North, he’s buying loads of Northern Ireland players for Fulham because he knows them.”