News conference: New Sunderland boss Roy Keane

By Mark Lawrenson BBC Sport football expert

Four years ago if you'd gone into a bookmakers and said you wanted a bet that Roy Keane would manage a club that had Niall Quinn as chairman they would have laughed and given you any odds you liked.

The common denominator here is a guy called Michael Kennedy.

Keane has taken on his first managerial role

Kennedy is not an agent - I think he calls himself a lawyer - but it looks like he has put the two of them back together after the fiasco in Japan.

Keane's relationship with Quinn has to be absolutely 100%. If there is any mistrust there at all it will not work.

Necessity is the mother of invention and if you're Niall Quinn and you'd lost five straight games before the West Brom win - including in the Carling Cup at Bury - and you're struggling for a manager, you think this could be the guy to pick us up by the bootlaces.

It's a massive ask for Keane because he has not managed before.

I would assume there will be certain resources there that are going to help.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Keane can turn Sunderland around.

He has to get rid of the losing mentality. Sunderland stopped the rot by beating West Brom and they must hope that mentally as well as physically they are over the worst.

The thing about management is that things can't be perfect all the time

Keane has also got to appreciate that because he was such an outstanding player, not everybody can reach the levels he reached.

For outstanding players that is one of the most difficult things when they manage.

At some of the clubs Keane played for - Manchester United and Celtic - if the manager or coach said something to the players, they immediately took it on board and understood.

But at this level a player might have to be told twice a week.

Keane might have to bring his expectation levels down a bit. The thing about management is that things can't be perfect all the time.

Sometimes you have to realise if you ask players to reach for the sky and they don't quite make it, that might be good enough.

In the dressing room at Manchester United, Keane had a rant and a rave - because his standards as a player are so incredibly high.

The problem with doing that with players you are managing is that you can lose them.

Keane's assistant Tony Loughlan might be the one to say to him 'go easy on them, because we need these fellas for the other nine months of the season'.