Short grateful to Keane

Sunderland majority shareholder Ellis Short has distanced himself and club owners Drumaville from criticism aimed at former manager Roy Keane.

Keane resigned on Thursday after last weekend’s 4-1 home thrashing at the hands of Bolton which saw the Black Cats plummet into the Premier League relegation zone.

Most at the club have expressed shock and regret at the Corkman’s decision to quit the Stadium of Light, although a report this morning suggested some of the Sunderland hierarchy were less disappointed to see him leave.

But Short told www.safc.com: “The comments reported in a newspaper today do not represent me, Drumaville or the board.

“For the record, I have nothing but admiration for Roy Keane and am grateful for all he has done for the club and and I wish him well for the future.

“With regards to the future, (club chairman) Niall Quinn and his executive board are the only people authorised to speak on behalf of the club, and they alone will be responsible for identifying a successor to Roy Keane in due course.”

Per-Magnus Andersson, the chairman of Drumaville, was this morning reported to have claimed that Keane’s “unstable personality” was hindering the club’s progress.

“In the end the demands on him became too big, the pressure became too much,” Andersson said in The Guardian.

“Personally I think that he has quite an unstable personality. He is not an Alex Ferguson, which many people think. He is a bit of a maverick and he didn’t succeed on the pitch because of his pit-bull mentality.”