The wolves have been hungrily following the scent of Sam Allardyce as they hunt for their next managerial kill this season, but it might not be too long until they are also tracking Roy Keane.
Keane has been virtually untouchable since he arrived on Wearside. Not surprising when you consider he led a club which was in the bottom three when he arrived in September to promotion, but the chinks in his armour have been growing ever wider as the Premier League season progresses.
It would be foolish to argue Keane is a bad manager - he has already shown that he is not by what he achieved last season - but being a good manager and an un-criticised manager are completely different things. In his playing days, Keane could virtually walk on water, now that he is a manager he is finding out he sinks like everyone else.
Allardyce’s supporters would argue long and hard that he is also not a bad manager because of what he achieved at Bolton, but his list of critics this season is almost as long as the one detailing the names of people who have had their personal records lost on CDs by Government departments in recent months.
Keane still sits considerably more comfortably at the Stadium of Light than Allardyce does a few miles down the road, but he is facing his first real period of criticism as a manager. His ability to judge a player has been openly called into question, but his ability to get the best out of his players is also in doubt as a result of recent results and performances.
Sunderland’s capitulation to Wigan in the FA Cup last weekend was a new low in a season which has already had plenty of setbacks. It was the type of humiliating surrender which makes even the most loyal fan question his support for the manager and his players. To put it bluntly, Sunderland were dreadful against a team they are supposed to be equally matched to in the fight for Premier League survival.
Hopes that the Black Cats would flourish in the top flight under Keane’s clever guidance vanished a long time ago, but there appears to be a real danger they are going to come up short in their battle against the drop.
That is not a reason in itself for Keane to be questioned, plenty of newly-promoted teams have sunk straight back down to the Championships and not sacked their manager, but how many of them have spent the best part of £40m on players designed to keep them there?
Of all the players Keane signed last summer, how many of them have been a success at the Stadium of Light? Kenwyne Jones is the only one who has proven himself at the top level, but he only accounts for £6m of Sunderland’s generous transfer budget in the summer. The rest, if we are being honest, have not offered value for money.
Keane will be given money to spend again during the January transfer window, but for those who worry the Irishman is going to waste it like an excited child in the school tuck shop, there are more encouraging signs.
By his own admission, Keane is on a learning curve. Despite his success last season he is still a rookie manager. He spent his money in the summer on what he thought he knew, but all he learnt was that players who thrive in the Championship are often incapable of establishing themselves in the Premier League.
This time, Keane is looking for players who are proven at the top level. Reading’s Stephen Hunt, Portsmouth’s Matthew Taylor and Blackburn Rovers’ Robbie Savage are all established at the level Sunderland wish to remain at. The return of Manchester United centre-back, Jonny Evans, on loan until the end of the season is also a positive step, despite the youngster’s poor performance against Wigan.
Whether Keane can get the players he has targeted remains to be seen - there will be plenty of competition from clubs who are also desperate to remain in the Premier League - but I also feel he needs to trim some of the dead wood from the squad.
The likes of David Connolly and Daryl Murphy should be sent packing, while the ageing Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke must surely be confined to a sub’s role at best. Graham Kavanagh is another whose best years are behind him, while there are question marks about whether the likes of Anthony Stokes and Roy O’Donovan will ever make the grade.
Keane needs to be ruthless and I’m sure he will be. The former Manchester United star is not under pressure yet because Sunderland, in contrast to their last two Premier League campaigns, are at least making a decent attempt to keep out of the drop zone, but he will quickly discover how short memories can be if the Wearsiders do find themselves in the bottom three in May.
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