Keane and McCarthy settle old score

Sunderland boss Roy Keane has admitted his relief at making his peace with former Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy.

The pair had a spectacular break-up at the Republic's training camp in Saipan ahead of the 2002 World Cup finals which led to the then-Manchester United captain being sent home.

However, McCarthy, now in charge at Wolves, rang Keane to discuss the possibility of agreeing a loan deal between the two clubs - defender Neill Collins left the Stadium of Light for Molineux yesterday - and the air was cleared.

When he arrived at Sunderland, Keane admitted his forthright approach to his career had cost him, and revealed he had apologised to both Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson and Black Cats chairman Niall Quinn for his outspoken comments.

However, he said at the time he did know whether he would do the same with McCarthy when the two sides meet in the Coca-Cola Championship later this month.
And although he declined to reveal details of the conversation, he is happy the matter has been resolved.

Keane said: "In life, you have to move on. It was like when I came to this club with Niall and stuff like that. It is good to move on in life. Life is too short.

"I am not going to go into the conversation. It is done and dusted. We were both happy to talk things over.

"Mick rang up about a player - he did not go through an agent or the chairman or a friend of a player - he rang me direct, which was much appreciated.

"I was quite happy to do the deal. We had a good chat, but it would be wrong for me to go into the details of it.

"It was all very amicable. We did chat about what has gone on before and it is nice to put these things to bed.

"I was quite happy and Mick was, so that is the end of it, I suppose."

Keane's more immediate concern is to get three league points at Norwich tomorrow following Tuesday's 2-1 home defeat by leaders Cardiff.