Keane goes mental with players

Black Cats chief turns to sports psychologist

By Peter O'Rourke   Last updated: 20th March 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Keane goes mental with players

Keane: Open minded

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Sunderland boss Roy Keane has enlisted the help of sports psychologist Bill Beswick to help his side in their battle to avoid relegation.

Keane is fan of Beswick having worked with him during his time at Manchester United.

Beswick was a close ally of Steve McClaren during his time in charge of Middlesbrough and England and Keane is happy for the psychologist to talk to his players.

Open minded

The Black Cats boss said: "We have had different people in since I got the job. We are open minded.

"Bill has been in once or twice and we have had Steve Smith, the high-jumper - he came in and gave a talk.

"We try different things on different occasions. I am very open minded. We are always looking to bring people in we think can help the players.

"Sometimes it is just a case of getting out of the box and trying to think a bit differently to the others.

"We don't tie them into a seat and make them listen for an hour-and-a-half - it's all very casual."

Neville

He added: "Some people might want to see him one-to-one. Others don't and they don't see him again. You've got to try different things.

"The position when I was at United was also very casual. If you wanted to go to see him you went to see him.

"Some players never saw him. I saw him once or twice.

"But you couldn't get in to to see him because Gary Neville was always in there with him!"