Roy Keane – Happy memories of City Ground Days

Roy Keane returns to the City Ground tonight with his Sunderland team for the televised friendly being shown live on Setanta Sports, KO 7.45pm.

Keane has had a colourful career since the day he signed for the Reds’ back in 1990 for £10,000 from Cobh Ramblers. He spent three relatively successful years on Trentside before moving to Old Trafford for a nice little profit in a £3.75m deal. The rest as they say is history.

Opinion on the way he left us for Man Utd varies depending on who you ask, but his contribution to Forest and every other club he’s played for has been immense. Like most of us he’s made mistakes in his time and he’s had to contend with his fair share of controversy over the years.

Many of us, myself included raised a suspicious eye at his appointment as boss of the Black Cats, especially with Niall Quinn in the boardroom, a man he’d fallen out with in his time on international duty with the Republic of Ireland. But his managerial career has taken off right from the start. Sunderland were sitting in 23rd place in the Championship when he took the reigns and since then, they haven’t looked back and now find themselves in the Premiership.

He had some nice things to say about his time here, when speaking to the Official Forest site. He said. ‘I’ve got great memories of my three years there. Brian Clough gave me a chance and that is something that you never forget. I don’t know if I’ve picked up any of Brian Clough’s traits but I just feel very lucky and honoured to have played under him. He was an absolute genius and when I look back at the managers I’ve played under, he’s certainly number one.’

There may be a welcome return tonight for former player Andy Reid, he’s expected to play some part and former keeper Darren Ward could also be in with a shout of a game.