Keane's future may be decided today

SOCCER ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:SUNDERLAND ARE expected to discover this morning if Roy Keane is to remain as their manager. After three days of discussions behind the scenes between Keane, chairman Niall Quinn and other advisors close to both parties, talks broke up last night with Keane still uncertain as to whether he wishes to continue in a job he started two years and three months ago.

Keane voiced his self-doubt loudly last weekend following Sunderland's 4-1 home defeat by Bolton Wanderers and is understood to have spent the days since weighing up his suitability for management in the modern era. Privately there has been support from Quinn but also a recognition that Keane's relationship with his players has frayed over the past month.

Sooner or later Keane has to give the club a response that means it can progress with or without him. That should arrive this morning in the shape of Keane at training or in the form of a statement about his departure. It is a contrast that reflects Keane's unpredictability.

During the past month Sunderland have lost six of seven matches. That led to Keane publicly questioning himself last weekend but that state cannot go on. Sunderland play at Manchester United on Saturday.

On Saturday week West Brom visit Wearside. That is a game Sunderland must win and the focus of this week's discussions has been on how Sunderland arrest a slide that has seen them lose six of their past seven matches including the last four at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland are in the relegation zone.

"I ask myself every single day: 'Am I the right man for Sunderland?'" he said last Saturday night. "I asked myself this morning and the answer was 'yes'. I'll ask myself tomorrow morning and if the answer is 'no', we'll have a look at it."

That question has not changed, but the time frame has. If Keane decides to remain, and should Quinn, the Drumaville consortium members behind the purchase of the club two and half years ago, and new leading shareholder Ellis Short like what they hear from him, then the 37-year-old Irishman will be in place until the end of the season.

Keane has referred to his "moodswings" in the past and post-Bolton is believed to have switched between being resigned to departure and possessing the determination to carry on. If he stays then this episode might come to be seen as a blip in his maturing as a manager. Last Saturday was his 100th game at Sunderland covering two years and three months. But this uncertainty has been destabilising.

There is no great fan backlash against Keane in the absence of any public announcement, though there has been rising criticism lately of his team selection.

But the doubt surrounding Keane the past seven days has affected the dressingroom and has created some more doubt in the most important relationship at any football club - between the manager and his players. From the club or from Keane, the players need some direction.

One of them, Andy Reid, spoke yesterday, to say that there is "no panic" among the playing staff. "Everybody needs to stick together," Reid said. "Everybody needs to stay nice and calm. There's no need to panic. It's about keeping your head and carrying on believing in the things that got you to where you are in the first place."

Sunderland remain ambitious and want to continue to rise. Yesterday they announced the appointment of a new chief executive, Steve Walton, and from Feyenoord, Chris Woerts, who will join the board in the new post of International Business Development Director. They are trying to get a new structure in place and given that the most important employee at any football club is the manager, Sunderland need to hear from Roy Keane quickly.