Former Manchester United man Roy Keane opens up about spell as Sunderland manager amid talk of a return to management

Reports today have revealed that Keane could be in-line for a return to management with the former Black Cats boss reportedly being offered an interview by Sunderland.

Keane had a successful stint at the Stadium of Light in the mid-2000s as he steered the club away from Championship relegation danger before guiding Sunderland to an unlikely promotion back to the Premier League.

Survival was secured a season later and even though many fans would see his time on Wearside as a success, Keane told Gary Neville that he was still ‘agitated’ that he couldn’t deliver more:

“When I went into management, Sunderland were second bottom of the Championship but Sunderland was a great club for me

“So I go to Sunderland for example, we may as well start there. We get promoted, down to the players mind.

“The players done brilliant and I got good backing and good recruitment. We stay up in the Premier League.

“And I remember we stay up in the Premier League and I’m still kind of like I see managers now when they stay up and they get carried around the pitch.

“I remember in the dressing room and being a bit agitated that we could have done better. And the season we left we were averaging a point a game in the Premier League and we were in the quarter-final of the League Cup.

“But I was still agitated. I thought we should be doing better. So that was my lack of experience. I wish for example that I’d maybe rang somebody like Terry Venables or somebody for a bit of advice.

“And they probably would have said to me, ‘You’re doing fine, you’re doing well, relax’.

“When we stayed up the first time with Sunderland, for some stupid reason I thought we would then automatically go up another five or six places, which is madness.

“When I see teams now when we do the TV stay up we say they’ve done brilliant but what’s the priority next year? It’s about survival for the first three or four years, we see that with any team.”

Alongside Keane, Grant McCann is also of the favourites for the vacant role.