‘You knew you were being assessed constantly. If you saw his car in the car park, you knew you had to be on your game that day’ Craig Gordon opens up on Roy Keane’s managerial style

Roy Keane.

These days, he’s content to play the part of pantomime villain in the TV studio, but when Roy Keane hung up his boots in 2006, he quickly moved into management.

The Irishman had played under the likes of Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson during his trophy-laden playing career, while his leadership skills and strength of personality suggested that he may just be able to achieve success in the dugout by sheer bloody-mindedness.

Keane was given the job at Championship Sunderland in 2006 and led the Black Cats to the Championship title at the end of his first season in charge.

Craig Gordon on Keane’s managerial style

Keane on the Sunderland touchline (Image credit: Getty Images)

Keane, who FourFourTwo ranked at no.9 in a list of the greatest Premier League players of all-time, signed goalkeeper Craig Gordon for a £9million fee after promotion and the Scot looks back fondly at their time together.

“I owe him a lot,” Gordon tells FourFourTwo. “He had enough faith to take me to Sunderland for what, at the time, was the British record fee for a goalkeeper.

Craig Gordon was signed for a British record fee for a goalkeeper (Image credit: Getty)

“The one thing that sticks out is the spirit we had as a team under him, especially in that first couple of seasons. We scored a lot of late goals and fought until the end. That doesn’t happen by accident.

“Everyone worked hard for each other and it was a team the supporters bought into. He was hard, but it was always fair. You knew what was expected of you and if you fell short of that, you knew what you’d be coming into at half-time.”

Keane’s time at Sunderland came to an end in December 2008 when he quit the club, with his next - and to date, final - job coming at Ipswich Town in April 2009, but he could never make the Tractor Boys consistently tick and was dismissed in January 2011.

After assistant coaching roles with the Republic of Ireland national team, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, Keane is now a staple of Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage, but Gordon believes he has plenty to offer on the sidelines.

Keane is now more likely to be found in the TV stuido than the touchline (Image credit: Sky Sports)

“I thought he was a good manager. Tactically, everything was always well organised. In terms of the day-to-day, he often took a step back, so you knew you were being assessed constantly. If you saw his car in the car park, you knew you had to be on your game that day.

“It’s funny, now I’m thinking back, there was the odd occasion when he maybe wanted us to relax a little more, so he didn’t come in.”