Rio Ferdinand has backed former teammate Roy Keane to take the Sunderland job
Sport

Rio Ferdinand has backed former teammate Roy Keane to take the Sunderland job

RIO FERDINAND has said he would love to see Roy Keane "have another go"at management as the rumors of his return to management have started to surface.

Keane has been in talks with his old club Sunderland and has been tipped to become the Black cats boss. Keane was the manager at the club between 2006 and 2008, and led the club to the Premier League.

He also had spells at Ipswich and was Martin O' Neill's assistant for Aston Villa and Ireland. This would be his first job as the boss since those Ipswich days in 2011.

His old club teammate Ferdinand has backed Keane's potential appointment on Wearside.

Speaking on his youtube channel Vibe with FIVE, the defender said

“I’d love to see him in it,” Ferdinand proclaimed.

“I’d love to see him have another go at it. I love watching him, he’s very tongue-in-cheek, he plays a role in the TV studio now but I’d like to see that character in and around the training ground, and at press conferences before and after games and to see how he reacts again.

“A big thing with Roy, being in the changing room with him and getting to know him to a certain degree,"

“The way, sometimes, he would approach situations… there was no seatbelt. There was no precaution, there was no ‘can we just approach it this way, with a little bit of softness?’

However Ferdinand has warned that the modern day player is very different to the players he and Keane used to play with.

Keane is well known for his temper and has been known for his sharp tongue like when he was a player

“Everything was really hard and direct and cold and sometimes it could get personal, with certain things. Today’s footballer isn’t going to accept that.

“They’re not going to respond the way that you need them to on a football pitch. Players are wired very differently and brought up in a very different way. They don’t have the same capacity to deal with stuff like that, which is so forceful and direct and can sometimes have that vicious undertone.

“That’s something, you’d like to think with the time he’s had in the media and time to reflect that he may change that approach slightly if he’s going to be able to go in there and fulfill the potential I’m sure he feels he has as a manager.

Sunderland have lost their last two games and travel to Cheltenham tonight.