It should be the kind of tame inquiry that allows a manager to relax into an interview but Roy Keane had an unexpectedly

It should be the kind of tame inquiry that allows a manager to relax into an interview, but Roy Keane had an unexpectedly terse reply when asked about the number of good luck messages he had received ahead of his Sunderland managerial debut today

“Yeah. Zero,” came the considered response, although it was not an immediate cue for all present to suddenly develop an interest in their shoe laces. Instead it allowed an exhibition of self-deprecating humour in an individual who despite his profile has never sought the limelight.
“My wife wished me well,” he added, immediately lightening the mood. “That’s because she’s not seen me for two weeks, it’s been hectic.

Otherwise I’ve had none, so I’ll be waiting by the fax.”A slight tone of embarrassment comes over Keane when it is intimated that he has hardly been off the phone to his Old Trafford mentor, Sir Alex Ferguson, since his arrival at the Stadium of Light “I’ve not made that many calls,” he insists. All contracts have to pass through a central clearing office set up by the league Clubs deal directly with each other Intermediaries are banned. If installed here, it would mean that clubs would have to spend more money on staff appointments concerned with monitoring talent and recruiting it – and perhaps less on publicity and promotion This might be deemed less than cost-efficient Indeed, it might cut sharply into the profits And for what? A transparently honest game.. What they need to do is copy the rules of the National Football League in America, the main outlines of which are repeated again here without apology. In the NFL agents do not touch a cent of any transaction until it is paid to them by their sole client, the player involved in a deal that has been officially approved. Because of the way football works, because of loopholes which have long astonished professional sports counterparts in North America, detection is undoubtedly difficult – if not impossible The bodies are buried with unerring efficiency. It means, surely, that the job of the Premiership sleuths, which is not exactly hugely financed, should be made rather easier Here, the challenge is much less daunting Indeed, a few qualified lawyers might just work the oracle.

The BBC programme Panorama’s investigations appear to have outstripped those of former police chief Lord Stevens It is a familiar story. On the last significant occasion, when the then Arsenal manager George Graham was suspended for accepting payment from an agent, a “major” probe by the football authorities unearthed one big-name miscreant, an ailing Brian Clough. He did that because he had failed to keep one valuable player. The risk attached was that he might, sooner than later, lose an entire dressing-room. NFL could teach a feeble Premiership all about transparent honesty Premiership football’s thus far feeble attempts to police itself have again been overtaken by undercover journalism. He sought to destroy the character of a player he alleged had threatened deliberately to betray his team out on the field. Whether Gallas said it – or had any intention of delivering on his threat – is no longer the issue The only certainty is that Mourinho broke an unspoken rule.