May be a case of Pride Park before a fall

A YEAR ON THE WEAR TAKE A LEFT turn out of Sunderland's training ground, travel 500 yards up the Shields Road slope heading back into town and you reach a roundabout with a bar on the far side. Believe it or not, this establishment is called the Miller Inn. It is not known how many commuters travelling to and from Sunderland this week passed beneath the raised sign and thought: "Oh no he's not". Not that Liam Miller will have found it funny or ironic.

On Wednesday Miller woke up to find Roy Keane had sprayed graffiti all over his metaphorical career sign and it will require some vigorous scrubbing, perhaps years of it, for Miller to wipe away the stain. Even then, people will always remember it happened in the first place and Keane will remain adamant Miller provoked this week's events. Keane will certainly have been thinking that as the Sunderland bus passed the Miller Inn yesterday on the way to Derby. Liam Miller wasn't in.

On Thursday morning Keane and the local press observed flippancies about Wednesday's developments -"If you are driving to work, don't get in the car with Liam Miller because he has more car crashes than anyone I know," Keane said; we laughed - but once he and we had left the room Miller's Sunderland career remained unaltered by the words spoken. It was still in a ditch at the side of the road.? How it got there and how it gets out of there are just two of the questions needing answers. Depending on who speaks, these will be different but as sure as Roy Keane is Roy Keane, there are two sides to this story.

Keane will not be enamoured with that line of thought, of course. Like all managers, Keane has an absolute viewpoint. His way or the highway, as they say. That is understandable: did Alex Ferguson not rid Manchester United of Ruud van Nistelrooy in a comparable situation where the manager felt a demonstration of authority was required, however brutal? What about Jaap Stam, that ruthless enough? This is how the industry has been for a hundred years and will probably continue to be as long as the people who manage it are drawn from the people who have played it. The idea of consultative management is ridiculed within football. Consultation equals weakness. It is not unique in this.

But that does not mean consultation is wrong, nor does it mean there is only one truth. Stam and van Nistelrooy will certainly have a different perspective on their last days at Old Trafford from Ferguson. Who is correct? Similarly Miller will tell those who care to listen that, actually, getting stuck in traffic on the A19 is not an experience limited to him. Keane will accept that argument, in fact as he said he has accepted it on half a dozen occasions with Miller, but as he added: "There comes a time when enough's enough."

Keane acknowledged during Thursday's Q&A that there was another agenda and that it was internal. With Sunderland four points off relegation with 11 games of the season remaining, this seems like reckless timing, yet Keane sees it from exactly the opposite view.

"It's not as if we have 50 players in the squad," Keane said, "we need every player. But I have to look at the bigger picture for this club. I have to look at his team-mates, players who come in regularly on time and train, the supporters who spend a lot of money up and down the country."

The reaction will be intriguing. Today is unquestionably one of Keane's most significant in his 18 months as a manager.

In isolation, Derby County away looks inviting. Doomed, Derby have one win in 27 matches and manager Paul Jewell was scathing about his players' efforts at Wigan last Saturday.

But this cannot be seen in isolation. Sunderland lost again last Saturday, at Portsmouth, a 10th consecutive away defeat. That is a club record. The next two games are Everton and Chelsea at home. Lose to Derby, or fail to win, and Wearside's population will ask itself for the umpteenth time in recent years as to why it invests disproportionate levels of hope in its football club.

The Miller incident merely ups the ante, though today was always going to be a moment for Keane because Pride Park, 18 months ago, was where Keane gave his first team-talk as a manager, as a Sunderland manager.

Liam Miller, having just been recruited from Manchester United, was in Keane's starting XI. Until Wednesday, Miller and Dean Whitehead were the only survivors from that XI likely to start today. Now Whitehead will be alone. "If he starts," Keane smiled.

Did he expect the evolution of the team to be so revolutionary? "If you thought that was my intention as a manger, then you're sadly mistaken. I do believe in trying to build a team, in keeping players together as a group. The way things have gone, with injuries, a few players have not panned out . . . but I knew there would be lots of changes from my first game.

"It might be different next year. I knew I had to change the club and there are still aspects of the club I need to change. Some of the players from that day have made the decisions for me. I really feel I have given most of them a fair crack of the whip."

Miller's eyebrows will be halfway back down the A19 at the idea of Keane's sense of fairness. But then, just as there is more than one side to any dispute, there is more than one side to Roy Keane.

Recalling that first team-talk at Derby, Keane said it went well but for him getting the Derby goalkeeper's name wrong. After some minutes, one of the players had the temerity to point this out. Was it Liam Miller, we asked? "No, Liam was late for that meeting. I had to sell the lad who told me, though."

" Miller woke up to find Roy Keane had sprayed graffiti all over his metaphorical career sign and it will require some vigorous scrubbing for Miller to wipe away the stain.