Keane is happy being in control of transfers

Aug 31 2008 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

ROY KEANE insists he would rather quit on the spot than put up with boardroom interference at Sunderland.

Only last week, West Ham boss Alan Curbishley complained that the Hammers board went against his wishes when they sold Anton Ferdinand to Sunderland.

And some clubs — including Newcastle — have also gone down the Continental route of allowing signings to be sanctioned by a director of football.

But Keane, who has the final say on all transfers at Sunderland, says he would not tolerate either situation.

“There is absolutely no interference here in terms of the football side,” he said.

“In my opinion, it has to be the manager who decides which players come and go — but I’m sure that’s not the case everywhere.

“I couldn’t work in that environment. If I was told we were signing a certain player, that the club had decided and not me, I would be out of the door.

“I would be off in a taxi. I would have to leave the company car behind!”

Keane has heard horror stories about interference from other managers and has resolved that he would never put up with meddling.

“When I first got the job, one or two managers told me stuff I couldn’t believe,” he said. “Interference, getting phone calls on a Monday morning, why did this happen, why did that happen?

“People say chairman have a right to ask and, don’t get me wrong, you have to answer to people. But if the chairman or chief executive were down here every day checking everything out, I certainly wouldn’t be happy.

“The managers I played under, Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough, people wouldn’t tolerate anything like that and maybe that’s why they were successful.”

Despite that, Keane does not rule out working alongside a director of football in the future but he will only do so on his own terms.

He said: “There’s no director of football here at this moment in time, even though I would be open-minded to all that stuff.

“There’s just myself, [chairman] Niall Quinn and [chief executive] Peter Walker and we discuss regularly what direction the club is going in and what players we might need.

“I have realistic targets and I’ll be told roughly what kind of money I might have to spend. There’s no conflict or confusion.”

:: Sunderland will face Northampton at the Stadium of Light in the third round of the Carling Cup to be played week commencing September 22.