CHANGING MAN?

Article in the Observer:

'I think I have the balance right now. I made a few deals with myself when I came into this. I would make the effort of not living in the job when I got it. It helps in a strange way that the family are in Manchester. When I Ieave I switch off. I'm gone. When I'm working, I'm working and the intensity boils down to two days. Match day and the day before.'

Those two days are when he earns his corn. He puts a lot of work into getting everything right, down to his 10-minute team-talks. 'When I'm in, I'm in. I get in most mornings at quarter to eight with Tony [Loughlin, assistant manager] and one or two of the staff. We work out. We spend an hour in the gym and the pool and then start work. And when I'm off, I'm off. In a way you can forget about the work I do on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The big days of the week for me are Friday and Saturday. It boils down to that.

'I look at players. Who's looking well? Who's trained well? I get my thoughts ready and prepare my team-talk. I talk to Tony and I say to him "My time is tomorrow." It can boil down to 10 minutes on a Saturday. It's not bad.

Surprisingly, for a man whose aloneness as a player was almost impregnable, Keane socialises regularly in Sunderland. He was out with staff recently at a Ricky Gervais show in the town. He had appeared a week previously at a Sandra Bullock movie with half a dozen of so from the team and a gang of backroom operators. On many nights he will make a point of going for a meal in Durham with staff members.

'I didn't do that enough as a player,' he says. 'I was too intense. For me, the ultimate relaxation is being with my family. Or maybe the most relaxation I get is still when I am out with my dog. Just walking.'

Relaxation comes easier when he is winning and Sunderland, who not so long ago set a record for successive defeats, have picked up that habit. Keane puts the transition down mainly to the quality of player he has been able to pick up in an intense period of transfer dealings that cost the club just £1million. Bids came in for those he hoped to get rid of. He got his hands on those he knew and admired. Perhaps because he was looking for something different. 'Once a fellah can pass the bloody ball we're looking for character.'

He claims he has been lucky in this regard. He has built a team with character. Sunderland's record of scoring late goals this season is unrivalled and speaks well of the personality of the team Keane has assembled. Either that or it suggests a fear of coming back in to a dressing room and facing Keane having failed him.

He laughs and says again that he has been lucky with the transfers and lucky with the staff he has put together. His own role he is modest about. Those 10-minute team-talks bring out the perfectionist in him, though.

'There might be a gut feeling, something that came to me during the week about our own team and our own performance. There might be something I might have heard before, but I try to add my own piece to it. Yeah, I work on them. We make players aware of the opposition. Five or 10 minutes of the opposition on DVD and then I talk to them. That's all you have really, 10 minutes.

'For a few years I went down a road of looking at a lot of books and reading and trying to improve myself that way. As usual with me, I went too far the other way. I think I looked at other people in other areas too much. I think the most valuable bits I've picked up were off previous managers. I refer even to Rockmount [his childhood club in Cork] there. The best managers always hit the nail on the head. Obviously, Alex Ferguson. I would have looked to question him on certain games.

'I'd feel in my bones at United what the team might need on a certain day. And I'd have to say he was usually spot on. He came in and gave what was needed. Sometimes we'd need to be relaxed. Sometimes we'd need a bit of a gee-up. Usually, he came in spot-on. I'd be saying to myself, "This is what the team needs." I hope he comes in from that angle.

'That's what I would try to do as a player and I would pick things up that way. Books and stuff you pick up things from, too. People I meet in other walks of life. They have a lot of words of wisdom. And a lot from my own experiences. You get lads who have stepped out of line, lads who need a break. You have to pass on your experiences.'