Roy Keane Leaves Sunderland

[IAceI]

No one said "fuck you" to Roy Keane. He lost the dressing room when he questioned his own ability. The players were however saying "fuck you" to our coaches with the combined age of 89,000. Players like Chimbonda and Diouf weren't giving our no name staff the least bit respect, Keane however had plenty until he went to the media and questioned his own ability.

In the meantime Ricky Sbragia is taking over with assisted help from Neil Bailey aaaaand Dwight Yorke. I think we have our next manager, Yorke with Andy Cole coming in as assistant manager. And Alan Shearer too

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

See you in the Championship Sunderland

That said, bit gutted myself. It was great seeing Keane as a manager and so fucking what if he's had a bad run at times this season? I miss the days when managers were properly given a chance. Unless he walks out himself of course. Here's betting they bring in the worst manager possible, but oh well.

[IAceI]

Again... he walked, he wasn't pushed.

I'll be interested where he goes next after saying he couldn't take us any further. May take some time off and have the rest your meant to have between retirement and managerial positions.

Favourites in order so far are; Allardyce, Brown, Curbishley and Bilic.

Let's see if he does a Paul Jewell; "I'm leaving Wigan because I can't take them any further." Any further than 1 okay season in the Premiership? I bet Derby were thrilled when he joined them with a manager who couldn't go further than 1 okay season. Although in hindsight I'm sure Derby would have took that over an 11 point season.

[9 to 5]

Not a surprise at all. There has been rumours for weeks about him leaving. Keane did manage to lift Sunderland off the bottom of the league and promoted and kept them there which was a damn good acheivement. But, you always got the sense he could be doing better. With the sheer amount of money spent on the squad (I think they only were out-spent by a couple of clubs since Keane's Sunderland got into the Premiership) and with few quality players to show for it you have to wonder how good Keane is about spotting players and bringing them in. He was partly saved by his Man Utd/Irish connections and his name status (which others have done and right to do so, like Hughes or Ince and now Zola).

Keane's main positive is he spoke his mind and players knew they were getting no bullshit from him. But his lack of transfer nous, average tactical skills and questionable relationships with some of his players meant this was always a likely outcome. You can point at the likes of Diouf being a cunt round the club but Bolton kept him quiet for a few years, off the pitch at least so it must be do-able. As for Chimbonda, I doubt anything will settle him down.

At the end of the day Keane did an alright job with Sunderland but I think a really good manager would have taken them further up the table and maybe have a good cup run or two with that outlay. Keane probably doesn't have the right stuff for long term management. Will he be back? Probably, and I would likely say he will be the next Ireland manager if the FAI don't bottle it.

[Matt]

Sunderland have suffered from their overachievement last year. The players brought in were nothing but expensive squad players but everyone just looked at the money spent and expected an improvement on last year. I think Keane has probably left by Mutual Consent, which as we all know means "here's a couple of hundred thou, say it was mutual". Which is a shame because he's a decent manager, despite being an ex-Scum twat.

If Leeds do sack Gary McAllister, I'd love for Keano to get the job but he may be a bit high profile now, and he probably wouldn't want to come to Leeds anyway.

[9 to 5]

Or if you want to be cruel, you could say Keane has done a Keegan.

[Summers]

When the going gets tough, the cunt gets going.

[Dan]

Strangely, I find myself being a bit gutted.

Keane was a cunt as a player, but a great player he was. However as a manager I really like him.

Shame.

[King Ellis]

He did keep them up which was perhaps the important thing after years of yo-yo'ing between the Prem and the Championship. The Sunderland transfer policy was, as everyone is saying, very extravagant. No idea if that was all down to him or someone else in the club but there's players who haven't done anything, David Healy springs to mind.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Then again when you're a team like Sunderland no-one's really going to accept your offer over someone else unless you throw a load of money in. Sure a lot of the players were bad value for money, but they were the players Keane wanted. Other teams do that all the time, it's just they don't have such a consistency of bad decisions.

I think the signings of Chimbonda and Marlbranque weren't a case of bringing the best players to the club though, just a case of upping the status of the club so that in the future bigger players would come (see Robinho... or at least before they thought he'd do well). The only problem is that you don't do that unless you're really confident of staying up without any difficulties. The Sunderland that survived isn't the Sunderland that is present, the old one had fighters that weren't particularly great but they gave it their all. The one at the moment seems to try far too hard to play attractive football and fall on their arse whenever they play Wigan

To be honest it seems a lot like it's mostly the players fault for being so shit but it's Roy Keane's job to pick the best team and actually motivate them... something he isn't doing.

They are really looking like Newcastle have for absolutely ages, only we got rid of all our fighters by shipping them to West Ham... you've still got them on your team that could be used if you had a decent squad policy.

[cmb211087]

If you need a manager, I'd be happy to drive Paul Ince up there myself

[The Kraig]

Doesn't this mean McCarthy beats Keane in terms of performance? I hope no one tells Keane...or at least is very far away.

[-A-]

Another chance to mention the fact that Sunderland's first team squad cost more than Arsenal's

I don't think anybody particularly questions the fact that Sunderland had to spend money, they weren't wrong for doing it. But when deciding how well Keane did in his job, that doesn't mean you can ignore it. He took Sunderland to the Premiership with what was only a decent Championship squad - that's far more significant that spending £30-40m and getting 16th in the Premiership and being at risk of relegation until the final couple of weeks.

[IAceI]

The money was extravagant, but it shows it was necessary and just how long it took players like Malbranque and Ferdinand to think about leaving London for the North. 90% of the transfers was them discussing with their family whether or not they wanted to leave, I think Chimbonda leaving was enough to bring Malbranque with him - and similarly with McCartney wanting a move back to the north, I think he was able to convince Ferdinand to come with him.

It's a shame to see him go, he's a better manager than a couple in the Premiership and he was still learning as he went which was something all fans were trying to keep in mind. Still, it seems like we've dealt with it amicably and like pretty much every Sunderland fan I'd just like to extend my thanks to Keane for what he's made the club become. Arguably a bigger club now than it was when we actually finished high in the Premiership at the turn of the century. Hopefully the right person comes in and keeps driving us to be a bigger and better club.

[TheRossWalker]

Odds on the new manager being Irish?

Listening to Los Campesinos, I've come to the conclusion that Tony Cascarino would be perfect for the job.

[Matt]

Odds on the new manager being Irish?

Listening to Los Campesinos, I've come to the conclusion that Tony Cascarino would be perfect for the job.

I'll personally drive... no wait, I can't do that.... carry Steve Staunton to SOL.

[Bigal]

Disappointed to see him go, but if he no longer believed he was the man for the job, then that lack of confidence was always going to make it difficult.

I've heard Gordon Strachan's name being knocked about, and I'd take him if he was willing; he's done a great job at Celtic.