Sunderland’s players are much happier under new boss Ricky Sbragia than they were before Roy Keane left. That was the damning comment from defender George McCartney.

 

The Black Cat’s form has improved since that time with striker Kenwyne Jones finding good form and McCartney credits Sbragia with allowing the team to play with more confidence. "In the last four or five games under Ricky, we've started playing better football and got more confident with each match we've played” said McCartney ”that showed against Arsenal“. Sbragia has introduced a element of self-belief to the squad at the Stadium Of Light which was apparently lacking under Keane.

Keane himself has spoken for the first time about his departure. Dwight Yorke, Sir Alex Ferguson, Ricky Sbragia and also, unbelievably, Clive Clarke who suffered a heart attack whilst on loan at Leicester all felt the lash, either directly or indirectly, of Keane’s tongue. But chief culprit according to Keane was shareholder Ellis Short with who he had a massive disagreement.

Unfortunate is the kindest word to describe Keane’s repeating of a comment about Clarke and those who previously may have had sympathy with the former Eire international probably saw that disappear with the ‘no heart’ quip.