Shared vision key to Keane signing new Black Cats deal

2:03am Tuesday 29th April 2008

NIALL Quinn will meet Roy Keane this week to discuss the next step in Sunderland's ongoing rebuilding project and the Black Cats chairman is confident the duo's shared vision will make future contract talks a formality.

Having watched his side guarantee a second season of top-flight football with last weekend's 3-2 victory over Middlesbrough, Keane immediately challenged Sunderland's owners to prove their willingness to "go to the next level" this summer.

The Black Cats boss will enter the final year of his current contract in June, and insists talks over a new deal must go hand-in-hand with a renewed commitment at boardroom level to the investment required to transform the club into genuine contenders in the top half of the table.

Quinn is willing to make such a commitment on behalf of the Drumaville consortium, and feels the strength of his personal relationship with Keane is sufficient to negate any lingering concerns over the depth of the manager's own dedication to the Sunderland cause. Contract talks will be held in due course, but the level of trust on both sides means there is no need for them to overshadow the rest of the summer.

"Roy and I are in this for the same reasons," said Quinn. "The club is on a lovely and exciting upward path and we're on the same road together.

"We'll get around to Roy's contract, of course we will, but it's not the typical contract situation that you might find goes on with players sometimes. In the modern world, that's refreshing. There will be nobody playing games and no problems with agents.

"Once we've had a larger discussion about the direction of the club and where we can take it, I'm sure it'll be a 15 or 20-minute meeting to sort it out. There's great faith between us."

That faith has developed over the course of the last 20 months, a period that has seen Quinn and Keane work together to transform Sunderland from Championship strugglers to an established top-flight presence.

Last season's title win has been followed by a successful first season in the Premier League, and the degree of back-room unity at Wearside has been in marked contrast to the more chaotic situation currently hampering the development of a number of Premier League clubs.

Tensions between the manager's office and the boardroom have been conspicuous only by their absence, and Drumaville's significant financial support has been accompanied by a willingness to grant Keane complete freedom when it comes to footballing affairs.

That has fostered a deep mutual respect, a bond Quinn feels is strong enough to remove any risk of Keane turning his back on the Wearsiders at such a crucial stage of their development.

"We have great trust in each other, great trust," said the chairman. "We've had that from the start, and I take at face value the way Roy feels. A contract is only a piece of paper. What's most important to both of us is the direction in which we're headed.

"I wouldn't dream of going in front of Roy and asking him to sign something if I wasn't sure about that. People may think I'm naÃve and that I should be worried about him getting poached, but they have to remember the trust between us. Both he and I are here for the same thing, and we know the potential that exists."

That potential was rather harder to discern when Quinn's financial backers completed their buy-out of the Black Cats two summers ago.

The club had just completed the worst season in Premier League history, and things hardly improved when, under Quinn's management, they duly lost the first four matches of the 2006-07 campaign.

Keane's arrival heralded an immediate improvement, but promotion was still not secured until the penultimate match of the season against Burnley.

The current campaign has been every bit as dramatic, and Quinn is relieved that his investors' gamble has paid off in so spectacular a fashion.

"I'm pleased for the people who have backed me, both financially and emotionally," he said. "We've put the Drumaville people through the mill a bit. I had to turn my mobile phone off when we lost (7-1) at Everton (last November), but it was switched on on Saturday night and I was taking calls from all over the world.

"It's great. They're all self-made men and they brought some unnecessary risk into their lives with what we're doing here, but they can see we're all going the right way and their faith and investment has been justified."

That faith and investment has finally enabled Sunderland to discard its "yo-yo tag", and having contributed to the highest attendance in the English league at the weekend, the club's supporters can take justified pride in this season's achievements.

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