The table, they say, doesn’t lie. Derby County (20) lie 10 points behind Sunderland (18) and Wigan (17) and with 17 games to go, Derby manager Paul Jewell will know that a Portsmouth / West Ham styled come-back is highly unlikely even if he could bring in a new starting XI (Paul already has 5 transfers done with 11 days gone, so you never know).
By all accounts, Sunderland are a better bet to stay up next season than Derby. And yet, Derby County have been able to attract decent players – players that would be more suited to Sunderland’s needs than Derby’s. Robbie Savage and Hossam Ghaly would have given Sunderland’s midfield some much-needed steel while Danny Mills and Laurent Robert would have helped Keano in the defensive and creative departments. You can argue that Villa was brought in due to Jewell’s scouting network but the other 4 MUST have been on Keano’s radar too.
What do Derby County offer these players that Sunderland are not able to? Money? Mills and Ghaly are on loan, and Robert was a free signing. In any case, Sunderland have the money (and once again, the security of a better league position) to pay more than Derby. Chances of staying up? Once again, Sunderland are ahead. Respected manager? I’ll grant you that Jewell is more respected than Roy Keane (especially in the Premier League where a lot of the players would have played against him some time back) but would that matter so much? Seems so.
The two other plausible reasons could be (for me) that a) Roy Keane is poor at the transfers end of the management business or b) Derby gives these players more time on the pitch which gives them more chance to shine and thus attract a transfer at the end of the season. It could be a combination of all three – in any case, Derby are going full-throttle in bringing in the players to revamp their squad while Sunderland are moving in second-gear. I would guess that this slow pace is not for a lack of trying on Keano’s part – it looks like he just hasn’t been able to attract the players he needs.
It will be interesting to revisit this topic in May and see how Sunderland and Derby fare after their different transfer strategies.
Your thoughts?
Ghaly is well known for throwing his toys out of the pram. I can’t see him being much use as a relegation fighter.
Savage wanted a two and a half year contract.Adding steel? Since his broken leg as Blackburn supporters will tell you he has not been as commited in the tackle.
Robert-everybody remembers his seconds of brilliance but don’t forget his hours of mundane ordinariness.
Danny Mills – Not even worth a comment.
Another aspect is something a Sunderland player who’s currently injured revealed(and which I’ve always suspected), that Roy Keane is not the calm analysing manager he appears to be in public, but a brutal taskmaster(more like the Keane we saw as a player). The player(who’s name I forgot) revealed that many players are unhappy and demoralised. Now imagine one big mouth like Savage(no matter how good a player he is) getting his ass busted by Keane. I think thats another reason why many players decided to reject Sunderland.
The same Clive Clarke who has only played 2 games or something for Sunderland during Roy Keane’s stint at the club? The same Clive Clarke who has been told he has no future here and has spent most of his time out on loan? It’s funny how no-one else has come out and said anything. The player never gets anywhere near the squad. He’s said it out of frustration and probably to try and get a move elsewhere.
Yea, the Clive Clarke comments are more an indication of the frustration at not winning than anything serious against Keano – unless you also think Eriksson is a crap manager because so and so player said so.
It’s fair to say that those players are probably not ‘champion’ material, but surely they would have brought the experience that Sunderland have seemed to lack at times?
Not being funny but location has a lot to do with it, unless you’re from the North East it does seem a long way from anywhere to everyone else….and let’s be fair Whitley Bay is hardly the west end of London is it?? Its hard enough to attract players out of London into the East Midlands, but the north east is like Finland!!! lol
Plus didnt you lot spent a shed load of your cash in the summer, Derby didn’t…and we’re also having to sell players now to pay for the newbies (Oakley, Howard, Griffin and probably Barnes) have all had to be sold to pay for the team rebuild.
Apart from those reasons we’re pretty similar clubs in size and stature….and it’s far cooler being a smaller town in the shadow of a larger city with a rubbish football team….I mean, imagine coming from Newcastle or Nottingham!! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww
It does appear to me that Roy Keane is quite stubborn in the transfer market, and I always find it alarming when managers sign players from a restricted pool of leagues they have managed in or players they have worked with. Rafa BenÃtez was, in his first couple of seasons, an excellent example, hence the signings of Josemi and (worst player ever to “grace” the Premiership) Nunez. Now Keano seems to only want Championship players or ex-United team-mates.
I guess Clark’s comments are more out of frustations( I didnt know the whole story,sorry). But they do lose quite a lot of matches inspite of playing well. I mean except the cup game against wigan where they were quite bad(not pathetic but), they have played with heart and have been quite unlucky to lose some crucial games. They do look like they need a good player(s) badly.
But the fact remains that many of us remain convinced that they’ll stay up and we believe that only because of Keano………
Couldn’t believe nobody picked up on the location factor until comment 5. It’s definitely a factor in some ways because lots of foreign players want to play in London. It can’t be blamed exclusively though, otherwise Newcastle wouldn’t have the players they do, Middlesbrough wouldn’t have had the likes of Juninho and Ravenelli etc.
this kind of thing astonishes me! we have the money and the respect in terms of club and personel (maybe roy keane the manager isn’t that well respected but roy keane the player was one of the most repected players to grace the premier league, and that must count for something) yet players are opting for the other team almost every time. david nugent, for example, might have played regularly for sunderland but chose pompey instead. he’s doing brilliantly. and savage turning us down is a massive kick in the teeth! the player everyone loves to hate but ask any sunderland fan and they’d tell you they’d love to have him here. one can only hope that the times will change and we will start coming out on top of our league rivals in the transfer market. let’s hope it starts now.
Where the hell has this article come from? It’s an absolute joke!
Fact 1. Sunderland have never wanted Robbie Savage. If they had wanted him, they would have put an offer in!
Fact 2. Hossam Ghaly is not good enough to get into Sunderland’s midfield!
Fact 3. Danny Mills!!!……Yer avin a larf!!!
Fact 4. Laurent Robert….just ask any mag fan!….he’s crap!!
Fact 5. The afore mentioned players went to Derby because Derby wanted them.
Fact 6. The afore mentioned players didn’t come to Sunderland because Sunderland didn’t want them.
This could have been an article about Derby Countys new signings. Why has Sunderland been brought into it?….Why not Bolton..or Spurs…or Boro…or………………………………………..
actually, Savage turned down Sunderland and chose to go to Derby….
GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT!!!!!!!!
Robbie Savage DID NOT turn down Sunderland, because Sunderland NEVER put in an offer for him! He wanted a two and a half year contract, which immediately ended Keano’s interest!!!
clive clarke isn’t playing as he’s recovering from a heart attack while on loan at leicester city. We all feel for clive and hope he fully recovers however i feel his comments about keano are totally unwanted at this tough time of the season when we may be looking for some quallity rather than quantity(derby county). we are still paying clarke as a footballer when we could have asked for his contract and payed him up which would leave him with insurance policies only,but instead the club have stuck by him enabling clive to gain the most financially!!! so there you have it we are a club that cares for it’s players even the ones who go to the press. As for lilly savage he said he didn’t think keane was totally committed to signing him well robbie your right as davros says keano didn’t want you and i have doubts as to which is closer to wales, sunderland or derby(reason for leaving birmingham).