Roy Keane has spoken out on the reaction he received when he joined Sunderland.
Speaking on the Stick To Football podcast, the former manager admitted he was ‘lucky’ to get the Sunderland job because of his successful playing career.
The Irishman became one of the Premier League’s best midfielders in history during a 12-year stint at Manchester United. Keane won seven league titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League, as well as being named in the PFA Team of the Year on five occasions.
Keane ended his career at Old Trafford and was appointed the new manager of Sunderland only two months later, without any real coaching experience.
While the 52-year-old is fondly remembered on Wearside for securing promotion to the Premier League in his first season, Keane has still claimed he was lucky to be given the job straight after hanging up his boots.
“You’ve got Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney, but these are lucky lads,” Keane told the podcast.
“I was lucky to get the job at Sunderland, my first gig after having a half-decent career, but the problem is when you have a decent career, when you go through a difficult spell, people throw it at you straight away.
“Wayne’s stats at the moment are not great because he has tough jobs. The first thing people will say is because you were a top player, does not mean you will be a top manager. But Wayne, like myself, is still learning our trade.”
Was Roy Keane lucky?
Roy Keane is completely right about managers being thrown in at the deep end simply because they were a good player.
Frank Lampard is a much better example of that, with a mildly successful season at Derby County leading to him being offered one of the biggest jobs in European football at Chelsea.
In fact, he did poorly at Everton and had an even worse second spell at Stamford Bridge, yet he was still heavily linked with the Rangers job recently.
Keane was very lucky to start his managerial career at Sunderland and, while he got us promoted, fans will be delighted that we didn’t manage to get him back following Alex Neil’s exit.
Everyone was gutted when we opted for Tony Mowbray, but I would bet a lot on Keane not taking us as far as we have been since we were promoted to the Championship.