Keane plotting ambitious path to ‘next level’

Sunderland 3 Middlesbro 2:THE SUMMER offers managers a brief respite from attempting to outsmart their technical area rivals but Roy Keane is bracing himself for a series of tactical battles between now and August, this time with the Sunderland board.

Although relationships between the manager and his directors are widely described as "very good", both parties are poised to demand something significant from each other. While Keane, having just seen his club ensure their Premier League status, will request that substantial sums be invested in both buying players and funding top salaries, Niall Quinn, Sunderland's chairman, wants his former Ireland team-mate to extend a contract currently scheduled to expire in 13 months' time.

It should all make for an intriguing chess match and perhaps explained why Keane appeared to be seizing rather than enjoying the moment on Saturday evening. Where other managers would have concentrated on celebrating survival, the Irishman was already plotting an ambitious path ahead. "Niall knows the score, he knows I'm quite happy to let my contract run out," explained Keane. "I did that many times as a player, I wanted to wait and see what my club was doing.

"I'll sign another contract when I'm happy with things. I am at this moment but there's another side to it. Are we going to try and get to the next level? If not, there are obviously question marks. I'm very, very happy here but, if you have to sign a contract to confirm that, that's not my cup of tea. I can, though, understand the club's point of view, they're looking for stability and, if I'm asking for a few bob for new players, they maybe want that commitment. If a contract is put to me with certain assurances, we'll look at it."

With Sunderland arguably needing their manager more than he needs them the odds are that such a guarantee-wrapped document will eventually be forthcoming and his deal duly extended. "I've been very lucky, the investors are very intelligent people," stressed Keane, who has spent around €50 million on new players since securing promotion last spring. "Everything I have asked for has been fulfilled. They haven't come up short in anything."

Now, though, he is asking Quinn's backers to dig much deeper. "If we want to get top players here, we have to look at the wage structure, without a shadow of a doubt," he said. "I can speak to players and say 'We're going to do this and that', but they'll say 'Where's my 50, 60, 70 or 80 thousand pounds a week?' I did exactly the same as a player. I said, 'If you love me that much, pay me that much'."

Many thought Keane had paid over the odds for Michael Chopra when the forward made a €6.3 million switch from Cardiff last summer but, on Saturday, Chopra's marker, Middlesbrough's England hopeful David Wheater, was given such a run-around that the centre half endured possibly his poorest game for Gareth Southgate's peculiarly hit-and-miss side.

Wheater will certainly want to forget the moment, just before half-time, when Chopra turned deftly inside him and struck a fierce left-foot shot beyond the hapless Brad Jones. It put Sunderland 2-1 up, Danny Higginbotham's connection with Danny Collins's cross and subsequent scoring header having equalised Tuncay Sanli's early opener.

Aided by Nyron Nosworthy's error, Afonso Alves had conjured that strike and the Brazilian levelled the score himself in the second half, this time courtesy of Higginbotham's lapse. Sunderland specialise in late winners and, two minutes into stoppage time, Daryl Murphy's header to a corner flew in off Emanuel Pogatetz.

It left Wearside jubilant but a talented yet fragile Boro still harbouring slight relegation fears. Southgate's frustration was compounded by the reality that most of his team are more gifted than Sunderland. But too many lacked the sort of indefatigable mental strength that has proved a hallmark of Keane's side. "Now is not the stage for us to be falling out of love with each other," said Boro's manager. "But lots of my players will learn a lot about themselves in the coming days."

If Southgate's squad can expect to hear a few home truths this week, Sunderland's board should galvanise themselves for some hard bargaining on Keane's part.