Keane lashes Staunton for omitting Sunderland players

Sunderland manager Roy Keane hit out at Steve Staunton yesterday after the Republic of Ireland Manager left three Black Cat players out of his squad to face Wales and Slovakia later this month.

Liam Miller, David Connolly and Daryl Murphy were all omitted from the team despite a recent run of form for the players as Sunderland push for an automatic promotion spot to the premiership.

"I do believe that if you're picking players it should be on form, but unfortunately that's not the case with Ireland - it never has been," said the former Ireland captain.

"There's no doubt there's a lot of politics involved. And it does irritate me when there's players getting selected ahead of the likes of Liam Miller, David Connolly and Daryl Murphy - I do scratch my head."

"I thought when the new manager came in that players would have a clean slate, but obviously that's not happened, and it's being influenced by the past, and that's totally wrong."