Quinn eyeing 30 months more at helm

NIALL QUINN expects to be at the Sunderland helm for at least a further two-and-a-half years if Roy Keane commits his future to Wearside.

Talks have begun over a new deal for manager Keane, whose contract is up next summer.

Chairman Quinn, front man for the Irish-led Drumaville consortium which brought Keane to the Stadium of Light in August 2006, said: “My job is somewhere between passing information between the shareholders and providing structures. I have a kind of middleman role helping Roy.

“It’s up to me to realise when the writing’s on the wall about a week or two before the media are circling round telling me to get out of town. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.

“Certainly, if Roy’s committing and we’re in the position we are, I think it’s feasible to look at the next two-and-a-half years. There is no definite timescale but I’d go into a cold sweat if you said I’d be around for another 20 years. And the missus would kill me!”