Sunderland owner appears to confirm Roy Keane rumours: ‘It would have been fun’
Rumours surfaced two years ago that Roy Keane was very nearly returning to Sunderland, and it looks like one of the team’s owners has verified the veracity of those rumours.
Juan Sartori, the owner of Sunderland, acknowledged that hiring Roy Keane as head coach in 2022 would have been both exciting and possibly disastrous.
In his first managerial position, Keane was a huge success at Sunderland, leading the Black Cats from the Championship’s bottom to the championship in his first season.
Following that, he ensured Sunderland remained in the Premier League, but he left the team after a fall out with owner Ellis Short.
After Lee Johnson was fired in January 2022, he was heavily linked to a comeback, and for a while it looked like he was going to make a big splash. Alex Neil got the job instead and Sunderland were promoted through the play-offs.
Sartori on Sunderland Til I Die
Sartori has appeared to have confirmed those stories during the upcoming third series of Sunderland Til I Die, but he doesn’t appear to have had much conviction it would have worked out very well.
“Roy Keane would have been fun,” Sartori said. “It definitely would have been good for the Netflix series, but maybe we would have had a third season of disastrous finishes!”
The reason the Keane appointment didn’t happen was mainly due to the way in which the club now operates.
In his managerial role, Keane had virtually unrestricted authority at the club; however, on this occasion, he would have been accountable to sporting director Kristjaan Speakman.”
Without mentioning Sunderland directly, Keane alluded to that on a recent episode of The Overlap.
“There are a lot of people out of work who are scared to say no to jobs and they will go in under any circumstances, even if the contract is only for a year and there’s no payoff and you can’t bring any staff in,” Keane said.
“It depends on the club. There are that many managers out there desperate for work, they are desperate for work!
“You can sit down with a club and have all the positive chats. I think I was asked a couple of years ago and I spoke to one or two clubs and a club offered me a job, maybe two years ago. It was all great and it was all positive, good feedback and then they give you an offer and you think nah, I cannot sign that contract. I can’t.
“Thank god that I’m not that desperate that I need to sign it because I go back and I say to people that you need to have a little bit of self-worth.”