Coppell: Keane target Hunt staying put

TO BE rated by Roy Keane is an accolade few would scorn but for an Irishman it is the highest form of praise. Yet for Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, Sunderland’s pursuit of Stephen Hunt was the opposite of music to his ears.

Keane’s bid of £2.5million (€3.7m), faxed to Berkshire the day before the Royals began 2008 with a 2-0 home defeat to Portsmouth, was always going to be rejected but Coppell was adamant it should have remained a secret.

‘‘I would like to go back to the old way of doing business where you phone people up and that verbal communication is the end,’’ Coppell said. ‘‘They didn’t do me any favours. I would like to think we would do business in the old-fashioned way.