Keane 'delighted' to sign Stokes

SOCCER:Anthony Stokes yesterday passed up the chance of playing Premiership football with Charlton or European football with Celtic in order to join Roy Keane at Sunderland.

Despite the offer of more money in London and a potentially higher profile in Glasgow the former Irish skipper's central role with the Wearside outfit proved a decisive factor for the 18-year-old who signed a three-and-a-half-year deal.

Stokes had extensive talks with Keane and club chairman Niall Quinn on Friday before listening to Celtic's offer the following day. The Scots offered considerably less by way of wages and, crucially, manager Gordon Strachan is believed to have provided less convincing assurances that the teenager would feature in the first team set-up.

It appears that Charlton, who had made the early running to sign the striker, remained in pole position to land him until a further intervention by Keane on Sunday persuaded the young Dubliner that the Stadium of Light would be the best place to progress his career.

Under the terms of the deal Arsenal, who loaned Stokes to Falkirk at the start of the season, will receive around £2 million while the player is estimated to have secured a weekly wage of roughly £16,000 a week.

"It's brilliant to be here," said Stokes after completing the deal yesterday. "It has been a hectic few days sorting things out, and now I'm looking forward to training and playing. I spoke to Roy about everything. He told me about his hopes for the club and it helped make up my mind. I'm excited about the move to Sunderland."

The 18-year-old joins the likes of Kenny Cunningham, Graham Kavanagh and Liam Miller at the Championship club where he will compete for a starting place against fellow Irish strikers Stephen Elliott, Daryl Murphy and David Connolly.

Keane expressed his satisfaction at wrapping up this, his third signing of the winter transfer window.

"I'm delighted that Anthony has decided to join us. We've beaten off competition from a number of high-profile clubs for someone who is a good player who can hopefully help us in our push for promotion," he said.

Stokes has generated high expectations after half a season at Falkirk where he scored 16 goals in just 18 league and cup games. During his time at the Scottish club he became the first player to score back-to-back league hat-tricks and he earned the Young Player of the Month awards for both October and November.

His father, John, who advised him on the move, was nevertheless cautious yesterday as he weighed up his prospects of maintaining the remarkable momentum of the last few months. "I feel this is the right move for Anthony and he certainly does too, he's thrilled with the way things have turned out," he said yesterday.

"Anthony was a Celtic fan as a kid but he would have supported Manchester United too and, like a lot of other Irish lads his age, Roy Keane would have been a bit of an idol for him. He spoke to all the clubs that had expressed an interest but Roy, well . . . let's just say he's a persuasive character.

"What Anthony wants," he continued, "and needs to do now is to prove that he's good enough to play for Sunderland. He's probably not quite there at the moment but what Roy has assured him is that he is part of his plans and will be given every opportunity to make an impact at the club."

In August, then Sunderland manager Quinn decided against taking Stokes on loan from Arsenal but the player's father says the decision was understandable given he had just returned from a spell at home and so may not have done himself justice in the week-long trial he had at the club, hadn't being playing in his preferred striking role and could not be guaranteed regular football at Sunderland which was a condition of Arsenal allowing him to go.

"I have the utmost respect for Niall Quinn and the decision he made was made for good reasons. Thankfully it has all worked out well for Anthony. The time in Scotland has allowed him to establish himself in what he always believed was his best role - as a goalscorer - and hopefully he'll go from strength to strength now."

If Stokes, who is originally from Lucan in Dublin and has been capped at under-21 and Ireland B levels, does succeed in making a swift impact he could quickly find himself elevated to the senior international squad and Ireland manager Steve Staunton yesterday welcomed the fact that his long-term future had been resolved.

"It's good to see that Anthony could be back playing first-team football quickly," he said. "We had him in for the B international and so he knows he is being monitored closely. This will be another test for him and if he continues to make progress then I'll be very happy."