Cagey Keane plays tough on transfers

ROY KEANE insists he is ready to “play hardball’ with clubs eager to lighten his load ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline.

The Sunderland boss admits that chairman Niall Quinn and chief executive Peter Walker are pressing for a reduction in squad numbers at the Stadium of Light after an estimated £20m summer spending spree.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy is believed to have been unsuccessful this week with a £1.5m bid for defender Danny Higginbotham, and Keane has another offer for a player lying on the table.

But he is determined to get the best deals for his club. He said: “You need a fair amount of players. Different managers have different ideas as to whether they need 22 or 24. We’d all have a number in mind, but there has to be an element of quality — you can’t have players for the sake of it.

“If you’re getting decent offers for players and they’re on good wages, you certainly don’t want them making up the numbers in training.

“We’ve got a lot of good young players who could do that anyway. We turned down an offer yesterday and it was well short. We’ve got to play hardball because every club I ring plays hardball with me. You get no favours in this business.

“There’re one or two areas where I think we’re stronger than others. I certainly wouldn’t be looking to let any of my defenders go, but the strikers is an area we’ve got to look at.

“We’ve got quite a few in the middle of the park, so there’re certain positions where you’d think if certain offers came in, we’d have to consider them.

“But if there’s nothing happening in the next few days in terms of players going out, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“There’s no great pressure for me to do anything unless I think a good offer comes in. We’ve got two offers on the table which don’t match my valuation of the players. I’ve got three or four players who I certainly wouldn’t stand in their way if an offer came in for them. I think a lot will happen over the next 48 hours.”

Keane has been impressed with a clutch of his young players, like 18-year-old defender Michael Liddle, who is in the latest Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad, and expects them to taste first-team action this season.

He said: “There are one or two good young players coming through who I’d be quite happy to be involved.

“They certainly wouldn’t have been ready last year, but I’d be very surprised if two or three of our young kids don’t get involved in the next couple of months. One or two could be involved on Sunday on the bench against Man City.”