SAFC 10 YEARS AGO: Edwards blow, Keane's £10m transfer kitty

CATS HITS BY CARLOS BLOW

Edwards could miss rest of season

CARLOS EDWARDS’ should injury is threatening to end the Sunderland winger’s season, manager Roy Keane revealed today.

But the Black Cats boss is still hoping Edwards could be fit again in as little as five weeks.

The Trinidad and Tobago international damaged his left shoulder when he fell awkwardly after a challenge in last Saturday’s 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion.

And Keane admitted today that the injury was a bad one.

He said: “Carlos went for rests on Tuesday once the swelling had started to go down and is showed that given the damage he has sustained, he’s looking at being out for between six and eight weeks.

“Obviously that means we’re going to be without him for quite some time. But I think he’s a quick healer and so we are looking at the shorter end of that timescale with a possibility of even shaving a week of that.

“It’s a blow to us though, just as it’s a blow for him. He’s been in fantastic form since he came to the club.

“But that’s football – players get injured – and we’ve got to make sure we cope with his absence just as we have done with the loss of other players so far this season.

As well as Edwards, Sunderland also expect to be without Dwight Yorke for tomorrow’s trip to Barnsley.

The 35-year-old limped out of the Albion game last weekend with a slight hamstring strain.

And Keane said: “Dwight loves his football and he loves training, so when he came off in the last 15-20 minutes of last week’s game we knew it was a problem.

“He’s not too bad but he’s not someone that we want to take risks with and I have to say that the likelihood is that he won’t play tomorrow.

“Bearing in mind that we have another game on Tuesday, it might prove to be wiser to give him some time to rest over the weekend.”

KEANE WILL GET £10M-PLUS TRANSFER KITTY

SUNDERLAND chairman Niall Quinn has pledged a £10m-plus transfer budget for boss Roy Keane next season, even if the Black Cats remain in the Championship.

Quinn’s consortium have boxed clever since taking over the club last summer. Though Keane has been allowed to recruit heavily, the balance of payments show the Wearsiders just over £1m in the red.

But Quinn promised there will be significant backing for Keane next term, regardless of which league he competes in.

The chairman said: “We will have an eight-figure sum to go to war with this summer, irrespective of what division we are playing in.

“If we weren’t to make it to the Premiership – and I don’t want to think about that too much – we would have an additional £5m from our parachute payment, and Drumaville (the consortium of Irish businessmen that owns the club) have already agreed a share issue that would be worth in excess of that sum.

“That would be added to a kitty that would be made available to Roy to dip into as he wishes. If we were to make it to the Premiership, we would sit down and have another series of meetings. Obviously, the figures would be quite a bit different.”

Former chairman Bob Murray gave then manager Mick McCarthy only £4m to spend in and effort to keep the club in the top flight last season.

Quinn wants to help the club compete financially, but there will be no blank cheques. He added: “We’re barely £1m in deficit on transfers this season and that shows that we’re not going to throw money away.”