SUNDERLAND shareholder Charlie Chawke hopes Roy Keane will eventually return to the club as manager.

Chawke, a leading member of the Drumaville Consortium who took over the Black Cats in 2006, insists that Keane’s departure from the Stadium of Light was not at the request of the club’s Irish investors.

And while he respects Keane’s decision to resign from his position, he is hopeful that his compatriot will be persuaded to reverse it in the future.

“We would love to see him change his mind in the future and come back to us,” said Chawke, who has amassed a considerable fortune as one of Dublin’s leading publicans.

“He’s loved by the people in Sunderland.

“Let’s hope that this is just a little hitch in his career and that, in the future, he’ll be back to lead us to the very top where I know that’s what he wanted.

“There was no unease (on the part of Drumaville members) at all.

“He was possibly a bit upset about the booing that himself and the team got after the game against Bolton, and I’d say it was all too much for him to take.

“Roy isn’t the kind of guy who likes that kind of treatment.

“I don’t think he deserved it and I think he feels that himself as well.”

Along with the rest of the original members of Drumaville, Chawke’s influence has waned somewhat since American investor Ellis Short purchased a 30 per cent stake in Sunderland earlier this year.

With the Irish economy suffering an even more dramatic downturn than Britain’s, Short’s arrival has safeguarded Sunderland’s future should the Irish recession continue to bite for months or years.

It has been suggested that Short was critical of both the size of Sunderland’s squad and the extent of Keane’s previous expenditure, but Chawke insists that no board member prompted Thursday’s events.

“None of our consortium members wanted him gone,” he said.

“We’re absolutely gutted at the moment. We were delighted when he joined the club and it (his resignation) was absolutely his decision, 100 per cent.

“We wanted him to stay and finish his three-year contract, which would have expired at the end of the year.

“We had no doubt that he would have kept us in the Premiership and in the top half.”