Sunderland defender Clive Clarke has delivered a damning verdict on Roy Keane's ability to coax the best from his players.
Black Cats defender lays into hot-head Roy
Sunderland defender Clive Clarke has delivered a damning verdict on Roy Keane's ability to coax the best from his players.
With the North East club firmly embroiled in the battle to beat the drop, Keane's powers of motivation will need to be at their sharpest between now and the season's conclusion.
Keane's calm headed demeanour on the touchline is in stark contrast to his snarling presence as a player but Clarke has now claimed his polished persona is very much a facade.
Clarke, facing a battle to return to the game after suffering a heart attack whilst on-loan at Leicester, claims his manager is refusing to speak to the players as Sunderland's form continues to falter.
And the defender doubts whether the Irishman, as was feared in some quarters when Keane became a manager, will be able to deal with standards that drop below his exacting own.
No confidence
"I spoke to him a couple of times at the club and he rang me when it happened which was nice of him, but we're not very pally so there's no real reason to speak to one another," The Daily Telegraph quote him as telling the
Sunday Independent.
"I probably speak to him more than the players who train there every day even now. He's going around booting chairs and throwing things. He's never going to give you confidence, he doesn't talk to lads.
"If the lads at Man United couldn't reach the standards he wanted, and they're some of the best players in the world, then it's going to be a lot harder for the lads at Sunderland to reach them."
