Roy Carroll has revealed that he always believed Roy Keane had the credentials to become a top manager.
Keeper not surprised by former team-mates succes
Roy Carroll has revealed that he always believed Roy Keane had the credentials to become a top manager.
The keeper spent four years as a team-mate of the Irishman at Manchester United and admits that the instant success he has enjoyed at Sunderland has come as no surprise.
Keane led the Black Cats to promotion to the Premier League in his first season in charge and is well on course to ensure that they remain in the top-flight this term.
He will be reunited with Carroll when he takes his side to Pride Park to face Derby on Saturday and will be looking to inflict more misery on the hapless Rams.
"He was a top captain when I was at Manchester United, I spoke to him a lot about football," Carroll said.
"It's great to see him doing so well in his first manager's job. He speaks well about football and knows a lot about the game. "
Mellow
Carroll also admitted that while he was never on the end of a tongue-lashing from Keane during their time at Old Trafford, he has been impressed by how the former midfield general has mellowed since moving into management.
"That's the way Roy is, he gave 100% on the pitch and on the training ground, but I never saw the 'hairdryer' treatment!" he joked.
"I know what he was like as a player.
"I suppose he has to act like that because Sunderland have a very young side, you can't keep shouting at young players all the time so that's the type of manager he probably is."
While Sunderland have given themselves a good chance of avoiding the drop this year, Derby already appear destined to be making a swift return to the Championship.
Their dismal showing in a 2-0 defeat away at Wigan last time out was blasted by boss Paul Jewell and Carroll knows performances need to improve significantly if the club are to avoid becoming the worst team in the history of the Premier League.
Disappointed
"The way we played against Wigan I think anybody would have been disappointed with the performance," he said.
"We are a professional team and should have played better than we did.
"You talk about it, you can't just sweep it under the carpet. We've come in and worked very hard this week and we're now looking forward to the game.
"We have to move on now to the next game with Sunderland, they haven't won away but they'll be thinking the same thing with us having won one game this season.
"They'll be thinking they can come down here for an easy three points but we will be ready for them.
"We owe it to ourselves. When we walk over that white line we have to perform the way we should do and it just wasn't good enough.
"I feel sorry for the supporters because they come and pay good money and watching us play that way is not nice.
"We just have to go out there and play a lot better than we did last Saturday."
