By Mark Ogden
Manchester, England - Roy Keane had supposedly been one of the leading candidates to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager when the Scot finally chooses to call it a day at Old Trafford.
There seemed to be nobody better qualified to fill the hottest seat in football when it eventually becomes vacant.
Yet when Keane's Sunderland visit Old Trafford on Saturday, they will do so as Keane's Sunderland no more.
Having lost five of their last six league games, the Wearsiders have dropped into the Premier League's relegation zone and the slide into trouble has proved too much for the combustible Irishman, who has now called time on his two-year reign at the club.
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Perhaps the fear of suffering a further defeat at Old Trafford prompted Keane to go two days before his return to Manchester.
The prospect of having his job taken away from him at the scene of his greatest moments as a player was perhaps too bitter a pill to swallow.
But with United now hitting the form that carried them to the Premier League and Champions League titles last season, a ruthless dismantling of Sunderland on Saturday is by no means beyond the realms of possibility.
Former United coach Ricky Sbragia will take Keane's place in the dug-out at Old Trafford and Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn admits that, once Keane had opted to quit, there was never any likelihood of being able to persuade him to perform a U-turn.
Quinn said: "Roy's tough on himself. He's got huge standards and he probably felt that United at Old Trafford is a tough game on Saturday.
"But after that we've got a home game and we're playing teams down there near us, so I'd hoped Roy would judge himself perhaps after those games.
"Everybody at the club has huge respect for Roy, though.
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