Keane spurred on by new signings

ROY KEANE has revealed the “difficult’’ transfer struggle he went through to lure a trio of Tottenham players to Sunderland in a multi-million pound deal.

Full-back Pascal Chimbonda and midfielders Steed Malbranque and Teemu Tainio arrived but Keane missed out on centre-back Younes Kaboul, who joined Portsmouth, after the Black Cats lodged a €30m offer for the quartet.

Finnish international Tainio is set to sit out today’s return to White Hart Lane, but Chimbonda and Malbranque will be eager to impress against their old club, in a Sunderland party buoyed by this week’s signings of strikers Djibril Cisse and Northern Ireland international David Healy.