Keane warns Sunderland board over wage levelsLouise Taylor
The Guardian, Saturday May 3 2008
After a successful first season in the Premier League, Roy Keane is targeting further improvements. Photograph: Michael Regan/Action
Roy Keane will ask Sunderland's board to revise the club's wage structure this summer and urge his directors to start enticing potential new recruits with salaries comparable to those on offer at Newcastle United and Middlesbrough.
"I know for a fact that we pay nowhere what teams near here pay, nowhere near," said Keane yesterday. "Over the past few years players have gone to other clubs in this area rather than us because of their wage structures.
"Look at the players who have been at Newcastle and Middlesbrough in the past few years. I'm pretty sure Michael Owen is not getting just £20,000 a week at Newcastle and I don't think Gaizka Mendieta and Afonso Alves are on that at Middlesbrough either. I'm also sure Middlesbrough paid Juninho and Alen Boksic decent money too. If you want top players you have to pay them top money and we want to try and be in that bracket."
Keane, whose side visit Bolton Wanderers today, also hopes to extend Dwight Yorke's time at the Stadium of Light, possibly by offering the veteran a player-coach role when they sit down to discuss his future next week. "Dwight's not leaving just yet," insisted the manager. "He's been one of my best signings and has done everything I've asked of him. He's been a great help on the field and, along with Deano [Whitehead, Sunderland's captain] has led the dressing room."Arsène Wenger has given Mathieu Flamini 48 hours to decide whether he wishes to stay at Arsenal but has warned the French midfielder the club will not break their wage structure to accommodate him. Flamini, 24, is a free agent at the end of the season but, despite telling Wenger he wishes to remain in north London, he has continually refused to sign their £55,000-a-week new contract offer and is now attracting interest from Milan.
"It will be sorted out over the weekend, and will he stay or not that is down to him but the deadline is Monday at the latest," Wenger said. "But we cannot afford not to keep our wage structure. We have a £360m debt and we have to respect the structure or we will go bust, it's as simple as that."
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