Commenting on the link-up with the former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland captain and the Black Cats, O'Neill enthused: "I think Roy will be brilliant as a manager, I genuinely believe that. If he steps in at Sunderland now, it'll be exactly what they need. That would be a massive lift for them. If I'd been a chairman I would have gone for him. . . although I might not have been able to work with him. That's a joke, but absolutely, he'd be brilliant."

Referring to his previous meetings with the Cork man, O'Neill explained that he didn't know him too well, having had only "brief conversations with him when I was Celtic manager". But he made it clear that he had not dodged the Saipan question with Keane in those talks. "My own view was that I thought he should have stayed with Ireland at the time, and I told him so. I happen to get on with Mick McCarthy, but that had nothing to do with it.

World Cups are really important and don't come around too often. I won't tell you what he [Roy] said to me. But I would have no problem at all with him taking on a manager's job."

And McClaren, who worked closely with Keane during his three-year term at Old Trafford as Alex Ferguson's assistant, also believes that his former player has all the ingredients to be a "topclass manager".

McClaren said: "I think Roy will make a fantastic manager. He has had a fantastic education working under Alex and Brian Clough. I was fortunate enough to work with him for three years and even then he demonstrated his leadership qualities, both on and off the field. Roy has a good football brain, he can see the game, he knows what he wants from the game. He knows what to expect from players. He knows what standards he wants and he demands them.

"Football intelligence is something which is very important when you become a manager. He had that football intelligence as a player and I have no doubt he can transfer that over into management."

The England manager predicted that Keane is the right man to transform Sunderland's five-game losing streak.

"You turn those situations around by putting somebody in there who is a winner.

There is no one who has demonstrated that better as a player than Roy Keane. You don't become captain of Manchester United or work with Alex without learning something about how to do the job."

And McClaren doesn't see Keane's reputation for controversy and volatility as a problem. "In the process of management you don't have to seek confrontation, it will come to you. Whatever confrontation comes to Roy Keane he will be able to handle it."