Kyril Louis-Dreyfus comments on Roy Keane to Sunderland links during Netflix documentary

Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has spoken for the first time on record about the Roy Keane return links.

Keane has been linked with a return to management numerous times in the last couple of years and came close to taking the Sunderland job in 2022 before Alex Neil’s eventual appointment.

Speculation was rife that the former Manchester United legend was on the verge of returning to the club he led to promotion to the Premier League back in 2007 with talks taking place between club and coach before eventually reaching an impasse.

Louis-Dreyfus said: “The Roy Keane potential with Sunderland played out much more in the media than it really did in conversations that we had in the club. The second we did make the change, I knew there was gonna be criticism in the moment, but the only thing I try to do is to make the decisions that I feel are the right ones for the football club.”

Sunderland co-owner Juan Sartori added: “I think Roy Keane would have been fun, definitely good for the Netflix series, but maybe we had a third season of disastrous finishing.”

Speaking to The Overlap recently, Keane hinted as to why he rejected the Sunderland job: "There are a lot of people out of work who are scared to say no to jobs and they will go in under any circumstances, even if the contract is only for a year and there’s no payoff and you can’t bring any staff in," Roy Keane said on The Overlap. "It depends on the club. There are that many managers out there desperate for work, they are desperate for work!"

Keane continued: “You can sit down with a club and have all the positive chats. I think I was asked a couple of years ago and I spoke to one or two clubs and a club offered me a job, maybe two years ago. It was all great and it was all positive, good feedback and then they give you an offer and you think nah, I cannot sign that contract. I can’t.

"Thank god that I’m not that desperate that I need to sign it because I go back and I say to people that you need to have a little bit of self-worth," Keane concluded.