Roy Keane recalls hilarious moment when giving first Sunderland team talk before Derby County win

Keane spent over two years as a manager on Wearside between 2006 and 2008 and guided the club to promotion from the Championship.

The former Manchester United midfielder recently held talks with Sunderland over a sensational return to the Stadium of Light, yet the club instead appointed Alex Neil.

Speaking on The Overlap, Keane was asked about his time as a manager and talked about his spell in the North East.

“Believe it or not I was quite relaxed as a manager, I really was,” said Keane.

"I didn’t lose it that many times with the players because particularly at Sunderland I actually had a decent group of players, decent lads. We lost a lot of games but they always had a go and that’s all that interested me."

Keane went on to say: "When you go into management sometimes you think it’s dead intense but you need a light moment.

“My first team talk at Sunderland, we played Derby away, and I’d spoken to the players before, but this was the first time I’d spoken to the group.

“We were in the hotel near Derby and I’m speaking to the players thinking I’ve got to get this right, I’ve got to win the players over, you over-analyse stuff sometimes in your head.

“I was speaking about Derby and I went on about their goalkeeper a bit long, just said their goalkeeper isn’t great, he’s not great on crosses, somebody nail him in the first few minutes.

“There was a player in the background, one of the strikers David Connolly, he had his hand up at the back.

“So I’m looking at him and go on and eventually I said: ‘Dave what is it, what is it?’ and he said: ‘the keeper you’re on about he was sold two weeks ago.’

"There you go, the scouts, they can’t do their jobs properly.”

“Everyone was dead relaxed afterwards and we won 2-1 so you need these light moments. You can win players over with that when you have a little bit of humour.”

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