Keane’s shopping list is ready for next season

Mar 16 2008 Sunday Sun

ROY KEANE is already planning for next season on the basis that Sunderland will survive in the Premier League.

The Black Cats boss knows the Black Cats face a battle royal to stay up but says it is essential to think ahead.

With eight games to go, no one knows whether the Wearsiders will spend the summer preparing for another Premier League campaign or find themselves back in the Championship.

But a positive-minded Keane has drawn up a list of summer transfer targets in the belief that his team will survive.

He said: “I’m planning for next season and narrowing down the players we want to sign, and we will be doing that even more so over the next month or two.

“Obviously we are in a similar situation to last season, but all my thoughts for next season are positive and about being in the Premier League.

“And you have to start planning as early as possible.”

When Sunderland won promotion last year, Keane found it difficult to attract quality players to join a newly-promoted club likely to find itself in a relegation battle from the word go.

Targets such as David Nugent and Leighton Baines both decided against switches to Wearside, plumping for Portsmouth and Everton respectively instead.

But Keane is hoping that if he can keep Sunderland up, they will find it easier to bring in the players he wants this summer.

“You have to be realistic and not think you’re always going to be favourite to sign a certain player because, in his eyes, history might show that you are a yo-yo club,” he said.

“That’s the challenge you face as a newly-promoted club and that’s why it can be a struggle at first because they have not been able to attract quality players until they have been in the Premier League a few years and built a foundation.

“You’re chasing your tail for the first year or two but things get better as time goes on.

“As long as we stay up, we’ll definitely be in a much stronger position than we were last year.” “But you can’t just go to go out and buy six, seven or eight quality players all in one go.

“What you can do is improve the squad gradually and, that takes time!”