Keane will draw on 'genius' Clough

New Sunderland boss Roy Keane hopes a little of the late Brian Clough’s “genius” has rubbed off on him.

It was Clough who brought Keane to England, signing him from Cobh Ramblers in 1990 and quickly introducing him into his Nottingham Forest midfield.

Clough spent just £10,000 on Keane and sold him to Manchester United three years later for £3.75m, having turned the Republic of Ireland player into the complete midfielder.

With Keane embarking on his management career, he admits Clough’s methods will be an influence.

“Brian Clough kept things very, very simple. Before my first game for Forest he said to me, ’You get it, pass to a red shirt, and you move’. That was his advice to me and I made a career out of it,” said 35-year-old Keane.

“I’ll be trying to simplify things. My friend Tony (Loughlan, Sunderland’s new first-team coach) wants me to bring Triggs up to the training ground because Cloughie used to bring his dog, Del Boy. Maybe that’s going a bit far.

“In terms of management, Brian Clough’s ideas were very simple but there was a genius behind it. He had his ways of getting the right players to play in the right way – people like John Robertson, the way he put me straight into the first team.

“I had three years with him and hopefully something rubbed off, because he was fantastic.

“Was he the biggest inspiration? With the amount of time I spent at United, I will have to say Alex Ferguson. But without Brian Clough I wouldn’t have got to Alex Ferguson.”