"I
am not a number, I'm a free man," bellowed the
Prisoner. Greedy sod, he should have been grateful,
because Coventry City striker Paul Williams is remembered
in the tomes of football folly by just a solitary letter.
Yes, one blessed letter.
Sunderland boss
Roy Keane warned of a new approach to
his dealings in the transfer market this
season, and the former Man United nutter
has been true to his word thus far.
1 - As promised, he hasn't rushed out
recklessly with Big Niall's lanky cheque
book
2 - He hasn't wasted £5million on
Michael Chopra
3 - He hasn't restricted himself to signing
only Irishmen
These are heady times indeed at the Stadium
of Light. But with the ying comes the
yang. You can't get lagered without that
morning-after feeling of your brain dribbling
out of your ears ... you can't spend ten
hours at Ministry of Sound without, a
couple of days later, experiencing the
sensation that the world might just be
coming to an end. And in Keano, you can't
really have a manager who will dabble
in the transfer market with logic and
random inspiration. It just doesn't fit.
Having signed Teemu Tainio from Spurs
this morning, the gaffer appears to have
become obsessed by all things North London.
Whether this has something to do with
the pinnacle of the last campaign being
the Black Cats' 1-0 opening-day win over
Tottenham which saw them top the Premier
League - albeit for only a couple of hours
- I don't know, but is the gaffer subconsciously
chasing that rose-tinted heyday?
It appears so, as he now reportedly seeks
out Tottenham's Steed Malbranque (ageing),
Tottenham's Younes Kaboul (troublesome)
and Tottenham's Pascal Chimbonda (misunderstood)
- three adjectives that might just as
easily use to describe Keane himself.