£10 mil in the championship?Would people be creaming over him as much if he had been an average Championship player, instead of the world famous Roy Keane?
The good job he did for us has since been elevated to Biblical proportions by some. Yes, we were bottom of the league, but only 4 games had been played (people love to credit the West Brom game to Keane so I'm doing the same), we had Niall Quinn in charge (I love the bloke, but he's no manager) and, on paper, one of the stronger teams in the Championship - even before the £10m Keane got to spend, a substantial amount for a Championship manager at that time (not to mention the Premiership level wages the Drumaville consortium agreed to pay to those players he brought in).
He did well to establish us the following season but, this is hardly a unique achievement. Following the Rico derby, 3 points from 18 in October/November 2009 (culminating in the humiliating and gutless 1-4 home defeat by Bolton, one of the most disinterested performances I have seen by a Sunderland team at SOL) spelled out just how badly things had got and, imo, how out of his depth Keane was. He had to go and he knew it.
5 years later and people are still talking about a failed Champuionship manager - the Aston Villa assistant manager - as if he is Brian Clough or Alex Ferguson. It's a clear case of people loving him because he is 'Box Office', rather than for anything he actually achieved in the dug-out.
Ironically enough, one of Keane's gripes about our club was our lack of winning mentality, almost stretching to an inferiority complex. For so many of our fans to be so fawning towards him because of who he is and what he achieved at another club, one of the 'big boys' he was so keen for us to stand up and be counted against, well, I find it all a bit embarrassing to be honest.