Keane already talk of the town

A year on The Wear: Not much happened at Sunderland this week.

Well, there was Michael Chopra's winner in the fourth minute of injury-time against Spurs, then the 10-man comeback in the 90th minute at Birmingham and some rumours linking the club to Southampton's Kenwyne Jones, Middlesbrough's Julio Arca and no one's Andy Cole (all of which rumours have something in them). There was also the manager, Roy Keane, wagging the dog, which caused a mild fuss. Apart from that . . .

If anyone was in any doubt as to the pulling power of Roy Keane, or was wondering why the Premier League wanted him back in its fold, or why Sunderland's game against Tottenham was chosen to open the new season on television, then the reaction to Keane's musings on "Wags" on Tuesday morning should have set doubters straight. Keane is box office.

Including the man himself, there were eight people in the room on Tuesday morning when a question about Steve Bruce's character was turned into a quiet tirade against waggery and celebrity culture in general.

It was obvious Keane knew what he was saying and, more than likely, where it would lead - to front as well as back pages.

As the conversation developed - and the tone was conversational despite Keane sitting behind a raised desk and we in seats a couple of yards away - Keane could see he was stimulating a debate. At the end of it, as he has done before on occasion, he half-smiled, half-smirked and said as he was opening the door, "We're playing Birmingham tomorrow night."

Keane knew the score there and then, of course. There are a few personalities within sport, and perhaps within non-political society in Britain, whose words cross professional borders. Keane is one of them.

I shout my opinion, I yell my contempt. I mean every word of it. I've got to be a winner or they'll cut me to shreds. - Brian Clough

Keane may have been gently taken aback at the media explosion his thoughts provoked - and he could not have anticipated that a designer-jeans firm would ring the club offering to open a shop at the stadium, which happened on Wednesday - but it was clear from his regular pre-match press conference yesterday morning that he was not suffering regret. Far from it.

My wife said to me in bed, 'God, your feet are cold.' I said, 'You can call me Brian in bed, dear.' - Brian Clough

Waggery was raised again by a radio reporter but Keane dealt with it diplomatically. He had moved on; Wigan, not Wags, were sliding to the forefront of his thoughts.

There were a couple of minor deviations, such as when he said he'd only been to Wigan before to watch the rugby league team: "I like rugby league lads, and rugby union - tough men."

There was admiration expressed for the "bravery" of Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and, naturally, Brian Clough in their team selections and there was the response to a question about Brian O'Driscoll's fractured sinus.

Having been informed the prognosis was better than at first feared and O'Driscoll might miss only the first match of the World Cup, Keane said, "That'll be fine then, ready for the final."

Again there was a half-smile but there was also seriousness; Keane does not think any Ireland team should go to a World Cup thinking they cannot win it.

That throwaway remark said much. He was generous with his praise for Sunderland's players and attributed the late goals against Tottenham and Birmingham City to their desire and their effort, but it is the manager who has infected Sunderland with a new will.

Niall Quinn, during his brief stint in charge of the team last year, talked of "gremlins" at Sunderland. They manifested themselves in a losing mentality, and some of the most frequently repeated remarks when Quinn was passing the baton to Keane concerned changing that mentality.

One of the reasons why there has been such a high turnover in players in the past 50 weeks is that Keane felt personnel change would have to precede mental change.

Anyone with any wit would distrust stand-alone statistics but there are two that say much about what Keane has done to Sunderland.

The first is that of the 43 Sunderland league games pre-Keane, four were won, 33 were lost; the second is that of the 45 league goals Sunderland have scored in 2007, 44 per cent have come in the last 20 minutes of games.

Never-say-die is a cliché but it's better than usually-say-die.

The fact that it was Newcastle's Chopra who scored for Sunderland against Tottenham, and because of the midweek Wag-fuss, the recovery powers of Keane's team have been overlooked.

But such resilience is a priceless quality, and he cited the European Cup finals of 1999 and 2005 - Manchester United in Barcelona and Liverpool in Istanbul - as the ultimate examples of why you should never give up.

"If you keep doing it," Keane said, "you can tell the opposition are not thinking they're going to beat you 3-1, they're thinking, 'We need to hold on to this, because they're going to come after us.'

"As poor as we were the other night (at Birmingham), you still have that feeling deep down that you're going to create something, you know we will. That comes from the players, that desire to get something out of the game.

"That desire, you can't coach or manage, it just comes with the players and that's why we keep going on about getting the right characters to the club.

"You just watch the opposition, you just know they're thinking, 'We're coming to get you.' They know it."

All top managers - Brian Clough - have that in them, to go against the flow." - Roy Keane, yesterday.

That notion of planting an idea in the head of the opponent is what is meant by the devalued term "mind games". Yet it can matter. If the Wigan manager, Chris Hutchings, were to tell his players in the dressingroom that Stern John's equaliser at Birmingham was the sixth 90th-minute goal Sunderland have scored in 14 matches, a Wigan lead today would hardly feel secure. Wigan, by contrast, have two 90th-minute goals this year and neither won them a point.

The point Keane was chasing yesterday was that by taking a risk and pressing until the end, you can unsettle others more than yourself. Tottenham know that now, their disconsolate players having settled for a 0-0 draw last Saturday, the €7.5-million Chopra knows that, and when they run out this afternoon, Wigan's players will know it too.

Simply by being at Sunderland Roy Keane is making football, and beyond, listen and take note.