‘Strict and straight’ Keane gets the nod from Cisse

SUNDERLAND forward Djibril Cisse can see the lessons that coach Roy Keane has learnt from playing under Alex Ferguson for 12 years at Manchester United, and admitted moving to the north-east because he was impressed following one meeting with owner Niall Quinn.

The Irish pair have left Cisse with no regrets about his move to Wearside and the Frenchman is hoping to show enough class to make his loan move from Marseille into a permanent deal.

“If I am here, it’s because I believe in Roy Keane’s project,” Cisse said in an interview published in today’s France Football magazine.

“He is someone who is very straight. He is strict and rigorous and you can see that has grown up a lot [by playing] under Alex Ferguson. He has a real project for Sunderland. We want to be a regular in the Premier League top 10. We have the financial means to do that. After the top four clubs and Man City, Sunderland was the club that spent most during the summer. The Stadium of Light is new and magnificent and the training-centre would be the envy of most clubs in France.

“Here I am trying to do what I couldn’t do at Liverpool. When I signed for Liverpool, I wanted to stay for a long time, but it didn’t click between Rafa Benitez and me and I had to leave to play. Here, the manager wanted me and believes in me. This trust is important. I need it to feel good.”

Cisse had started the campaign playing for Marseille but it only took one meeting with Niall Quinn to convince him to join the Keane revolution.

“Sunderland had been interested in me for a few weeks and the club officials had been calling me,” he said. “Manchester City were also on the scene. I didn’t want to leave Marseille and I thought I would be staying. But after a few games, I felt that the situation had changed and I wasn’t going to play much. Sunderland were still interested, so I decided to sign in one day, after speaking to Niall Quinn. I didn’t want to wait.

“Right now, everybody seems satisfied. If Sunderland were so eager to put a sign-on option on the loan contract, it’s probably because they have a little idea in mind.”

Cisse scored on his debut for his new club, coming off the bench to net Sunderland’s late winner in a 2-1 success at Spurs. He also opened the scoring in a 2-1 loss at Aston Villa.

“I think Djib is getting stronger week by week,” Keane said on Monday. “He needed time to settle and he’s done that, we’ve seen a little bit of what he’s capable of, we’ve seen his pace and power. It takes time for players to settle in and work out how to get the best out of each other.”