Phew, I thought our key Irish man was gone

WHEN I heard that an Irish icon in charge of all things Sunderland AFC was about to walk, I had a bit of a panic on. Surely we’d struggle to survive as a Premier League outfit; maybe we’d no longer be able to attract players to the club.

It was a worry. Then I discovered that it was Roy Keane doing the walking rather than Niall Quinn, and everything didn’t seem so bad.

You can dress it up how you like, but Royston Keane calling time on his 27 months at the Stadium of Light isn’t the end of the world. It’s not even close. Sure, we’ve lost a bit of pull and the ability to make ourselves headline news with his forthright opinions. What we can’t afford to lose is the structure behind the scenes that allowed him to indulge in a £75m spending spree in his two years on Wearside and enjoy the full support of one of the best boards in the Premiership.

Almost as soon as Keane arrived, the press were braced for his departure. Would he walk within days? Would he wait until he was cherry picked by Manchester United? Would he leave us in the lurch as a revenge attack on Quinn? In the end, it was an unsatisfying compromise.

But just as things were starting to turn against him for the first time at Sunderland, he packed his bags and headed off into the sunset. Whether he’ll be seen back in management or not remains to be seen, although there can’t be many Premier League clubs who’d be interested. It’d be a gamble for a top flight side and I’m just not sure Keane’s ego would take him back outside of the Premier again.

Only last Saturday Roy talked about sticking it out at Sunderland in the aftermath of our 4-1 humiliation at home to Bolton. He said: “People keep asking me about being a quitter and I don’t think I am a quitter. Anyone who’s played with me or worked with me would know I’m not.”

But there’s no doubt now that he has no problem walking out on Sunderland, however, there’s little anger directed at him from Wearside; only 23% of the fans polled on our message board after the Bolton debacle wanted him gone. Niall has said that Roy simply took the team as far as he could. But for a fierce competitor like Keane, defeat seems an odd concept.

The big black mark that will forever tarnish his name at SAFC is his record in the transfer market. He’s spent £75m and recouped fees on just two outgoing players. In fact, he struggled badly to get rid of some of the dross that he brought in, such as Swedish international striker Rade Prica. But for whoever succeeds Keane, their first big task will be sifting through squad players like David Connolly and finding buyers or ripping up their contracts.

As for who our next manager will be, I’m short of ideas. Sam Allardyce is the early favourite among bookies, but would be a disastrous choice for fans. Players might occasionally switch between Tyneside and Wearside, but managers rarely do.

Our next gaffer will have a relegation fight on his hands. But the league is tight enough for a couple of wins to alleviate any pressure, Harry Redknapp has proved that at Tottenham, so there’s still scope for a successful season. The most important thing is that we don’t turn a little tussle into some sort of huge turmoil. We simply can’t afford to let a cog in the SAFC engine send us to pieces.

I suspect it won’t. Roy will be fondly remembered but Quinn is our saviour. He convinced wealthy Irish businessmen to rescue our club, met fans individually to tempt them back to the Stadium of Light and ran the club as chairman and also briefly from the dugout. The manager seems only a part of what Quinn has been trying to achieve. The Keane may be dead, but long live the Quinn.

* Martyn McFadden is the editor of Sunderland fanzine ‘A Love Supreme’, and a weekly contributor to the Irish Examiner