I said this when he was appointed, and there has been NOTHING that he has done to prove me wrong. Roy Keane is not a good football manager, but I think Sunderland are too scared to let him go. Imagine holding his record in any other team, for any other manager...they would be linked every week with being sacked or replaced!

I wonder if, should they (Sunderland) be relegeated, would they still blindly stand by Keane?

Except that for a newly promoted side the realistic objective is only to avoid relegation, and if he fails marginally it actually isn't a horrible failure on his part.

He learnt from his time at United that the foundation of a side should always have a good goalie and two good centrebacks, but his mistake is taking it too far and spending whatever he got on an admittedly good goalie who unfortunately isn't working out as well as he'd have liked. IMO he'd have been better off signing a couple of outfield players with top level experience which is what you will always need. I don't think his players always look outplayed but often they find it hard to bring that something extra at the required level which an experienced player would be able to bring.

Relegation for Sunderland (unlike for Derby) is still far from a certainty and I'd say Bolton, Wigan and Boro all stand as great if not higher chance of going down. Together with Fulham of course.