IN the end, it all comes back to Saipan. “I’d do it again tomorrow,”

said Roy Keane, when he was challenged about his departure from the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup squad during his introductory press conference as Sunderland manager. Twenty-seven months, and 100 games later, and the itinerant Irishman has been true to his word.

There are countless differences between this week’s exit from Wearside and 2002’s departure from Japan, but with Keane having been branded a quitter in the wake of his bust-up with Mick McCarthy, it is difficult to see past the character traits that remain the same.

Act first, think later. No matter how calculated this week’s resignation has been, it will be interpreted as the instinctive act of a firebrand who struggles to keep his emotions in check.

In many quarters, it will also be viewed as an act of cowardice. Sunderland have numerous problems at the moment, and almost all of them are attributable to Keane. By walking away with his side in the bottom three of the Premier League, the self-styled man of the people has effectively washed his hands of his responsibilities. Having criticised all and sundry during his first managerial post, he has lacked the courage of his convictions when Sunderland needed them most.

His time at the Stadium of Light will be remembered as a whirlwind that eventually blew itself out, and sadly the sourness of his departure will overshadow the euphoria that accompanied much of his reign.

But for all that Sunderland fans will be smarting this morning, it would be wrong to downplay the extent of Keane’s achievements.

The garden is hardly rosy, but in the weeks that preceded the Irishman’s arrival, the Black Cats had conceded three goals to both Plymouth and Southend.

Tomorrow, they will probably lose to Manchester United. In 2006, they crashed out of the Carling Cup at Bury.

Keane inherited a Sunderland side that had hit rock bottom, but in the space of nine manic months, he transformed it into Championship champions.

His methods were far from orthodox – few will forget the moment when he dropped three of his players because they were late for the team bus – but no-one could claim they were ineffective.

On the field, the former Manchester United skipper transformed Sunderland into a free-flowing force. Off it, the force of his personality ensured the club regained the status and respect it had ceded when the previous campaign finished in a record Premier League points low.

Promotion preceded a spending spree, and with the likes of Craig Gordon, Kieran Richardson and Kenwyne Jones bolstering the squad that won the title, Keane successfully avoided relegation in his first season in the top-flight.

Premier League survival was a notable achievement, but by the start of the current campaign, the cracks in his rebuilding project were giving cause for concern.

The squad was a bloated mish-mash, with the Drumaville Consortium’s willingness to hand over lavish funds exacerbating a seemingly scatter-gun approach to player recruitment.

Keane lacked any experience of scouting players, yet he was granted complete control over every aspect of the club’s recruitment policy. The result was a victory for quantity over quality, with players arriving with undue haste, only to depart as quickly as they appeared. It is safe to say the names of Rade Prica, Greg Halford and Paul McShane will not appear in Sunderland’s Hall of Fame.

A huge squad – the Black Cats currently boast almost 50 senior professionals – inevitably meant chopping and changing resources, but Keane’s endless tinkering created further conflict and confusion.

The players didn’t like it, yet Keane seemed to wear his authority as a badge of honour. He was the manager, and it was the players’ responsibility to remember and accept that. If they were dropped for a relative novice – as was the case when Djibril Cisse was left out of the side at Chelsea to accommodate Martyn Waghorn – they were not in a position to complain.

Keane’s man management technique was a continuation of the attitude he had adopted as a player. It was “My way or the Highway”, but while that seemed to work with the likes of Daryl Murphy and Danny Collins, it came unstuck when applied to the likes of Cisse and El-Hadji Diouf.

Seasoned internationals do not enjoy being treated as errant children.

That might not have mattered had Keane been able to continue in his usual vein during next month’s transfer window. Ten players in, six disruptive influences out, and things might have changed in the second half of the season.

As the last few weeks have proved, though, the off-field outlook has changed. Ellis Short’s arrival as Sunderland’s largest shareholder heralded a new era of increased accountability, and for the first time in his reign, Keane was asked to rein in his excesses.

There was to be no magic January wand, and no expensive transfer fix.

Faced with the prospect of soldiering on until the end of the season, Keane internalised the fall-out from last weekend’s humiliation against Bolton, and opted to fall on his sword.

He claims he could not take Sunderland any further, yet 18th place in the Premier League is hardly the point at which he would have wanted to sign off.

It smacks of unfinished business, but just as the World Cup went on without him, so Sunderland will attempt to rebuild in Keane’s absence.

The club will hope this week’s events are regarded as a temporary blip, but for the Irishman, they could mark the end of his managerial career.

For the first time in two years, the going got tough.

For the second time in his career, Keane got going.