Roy Keane is pushing Sunderland in a direction, and it seems to be up. He did a wonderful job with them in the Championship and they were the only one of the newly promoted clubs to avoid relegation. With his latest moves it looks like Keane has his heart set on moving further up the table. The Prem has been dominated by the "Big Four" and an argument could be made that there is now a "Next Five" with Man City, Everton, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Portsmouth all trying to play in Europe. These clubs aren't as set in stone, Newcastle and West Ham are close behind, and all it takes is a billionaire takeover to propel Hull into the "Next Five." It is clear that there is now a gap between the clubs secure in the top of table and those fighting for survival. With the current tv deal newly promoted teams will always have trouble competing with established Premiership sides, but the old boys are afraid of being sucked into a relegation battle. It's not so easy to recover from a drop into the Championship, as Southampton, Leeds and Millwall can all attest to.
This brings up Keane, who launched an ambitious £23 million bid for four Tottenham players; Tainio, Malbranque, Chimbonda and Kaboul. Tottenham is no stranger to selling in bulk, they made a similar deal with Portsmouth a couple years ago, but this would be a dramatic shift for both teams. Ramos is building a squad that will be almost unrecognizable to the team Jol coached, and Ramos is not done. Chimbonda and Tainio have had their medicals, leaving Kaboul and Malbranque. Malbranque and Tainio are underrated players who will upgrade Sunderland's midfield and Chimbonda is a world class defender when he's in the right mood. Kaboul, well lets call him "promising." These are the first signings for Keane, and if you're not upgrading your squad than you're moving backwards. Keane did a great job in the market last year with Chopra and Jones, but he hasn't been able to land any big names. Sunderland has the other Stadium of Light and 45,000 seats so they have the facilities to become a big team. A few more signings and I might have to revise my "Next Five."One Liners
- Blackburn to let Friedel go to Villa on condition they find a suitable replacement, is Paul Robinson really "suitable"
- West Ham signs Behrami, hoping it won't be a Swiss miss
- Toure contracts malaria, Wenger puts in personal transfer request
- Scolari avoids Fergie's comments, Mourinho wishing he was still in England
- Alves wins case against AZ because his agent didn't sign pre-contract, sounds like someone went on the Heineken tour a few too many times that day
