Niall Quinn spoke fondly of former Sunderland boss Roy Keane and his appointment.
Looking at Sunderland’s previous managers, not many in recent times were able to create such an impact on Wearside as Roy Keane.
Jordan Henderson has spoken fondly of Keane when he was in the Black Cats academy, whilst Martyn Waghorn has praised the former Sunderland boss for handing him his debut back in 2008; it is safe to say that the Irishman left an everlasting effect on the players he managed.
His ability to get the very best out of his squad has been highlighted by former Sunderland chairman and boss Niall Quinn, who has looked back on how Keane saved the Black Cats when times were bleak, highlighting one story that reflects the impact of the Irishman.
Niall Quinn reminisces over former Sunderland boss Roy Keane and how he saved the team from ‘trouble’
Keane took over Sunderland in August 2006 after Quinn’s managerial attempts saw the Black Cats with four successive defeats.
The squad was underperforming, and Keane had quite the task to turn the side’s fortunes around, but according to Quinn, even just speculation of his arrival was enough to get a tune out of the squad.
In an interview with Roker Report, Sunderland legend Quinn spoke fondly of Keane, where he said: “We went to Coventry, Daryl Murphy scores and all is looking good – then suddenly I understood why the club was in so much trouble. Coventry have a throw in, our lads turn their backs, Coventry score, then a few minutes later Stern John scores a second. As tough as that was, you could tell something very big was needed. We were alarmed by the lack of belief. We told them a few times, ‘something big is going to happen here, try and prove you want to be a part of it’.
“This all coincided with us keeping in touch with Roy’s solicitor to find out what the story was and we got the word he had came back from holiday following a defeat at Bury in the League Cup – a defeat where we had done all of our tactics around our new signing Arnau Riera who got sent off in the first three minutes before I’d even taken my seat. That was a moment I just looked up and thought “God, you don’t want me to do this job, do you?”
“But we knew Roy was favourable to coming at the point though, so we remained calm. He didn’t come til a week later and we had a game against the league leaders West Brom; word had started to seep out that Roy was coming and the players all played 35% better in that game! We beat the league leaders easily and the players were all up for it, so that was a little twist before he even came into the door.
“Then the deal itself went through, we bought him six players. It was hard work, but we got it going and got to the Premier League well ahead of schedule.”
Regis Le Bris could take a leaf out of Roy Keane’s book for rest of 2024/25 season
The main thing that many people associate with Sunderland under Keane is the fact that they were able to grind out results, and show resilience and strength from kick-off until the final whistle. Even if the Black Cats weren’t on top form, Keane ensured that energy and efforts levels were at a maximum across the pitch consistently.
This particularly helped in the latter stages of the Championship promotion winning campaign under Keane, which saw Sunderland lose just one in their last 20 games of the campaign, winning 16 of those – not necessarily in pretty fashion, having grinded out eight of those wins by one goal.
If the current Sunderland squad under Regis Le Bris could replicate the efforts and physical dominance to the promotion-winning side under Keane, there is no doubt that consistency would follow, something that they have lacked on occasions this campaign.