The retreat of Roy Keane, and the Prem. schedule begins to heat up

Roy Keane was as enigmatic as Sunderland manager as he was during his legendary playing career with Manchester United. Matthew Lewis/Getty Images The Limey's Mailbag Keep the banter flowing to The Limey. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

For what, exactly, is Roy Keane keen? Rest? Solitude? Perfection? Happiness? What emotion led the enigmatic Irishman last week to quit the Sunderland manager's job he had held since August 2006?

Yes, Sunderland is in 18th place in the English Premier League, and had suffered five defeats in its past six games. But it was only four points out of 10th place and a mid-table berth in an unusually tight competition. Statistically, the Black Cats' position could easily be rectified, and Keane's record with the club would have bought him time. When he arrived at Sunderland two summers ago, the club had lost four straight and was second to last in The Championship. That season, he guided the team to first place and promotion to the EPL, where it finished last season in a respectable 15th place.

Yes, recently arrived leading shareholder Ellis Short questioned Keane's transfer dealings and failure to extend his contract. But overall, Keane was supported by his board. The media spotlight was intense, but no more so than when he controlled the Old Trafford midfield. What, then, led Keane to leave?

The answer lies in some mix of direct and indirect impacts of the man's troubled mind. Keane's strivings for perfection had deteriorated relationships with many of his players. Often dissatisfied, his team was frequently rotated, while his forceful and temperamental locker-room style proved fractious.

Suffering from the self-imposed pressures of unrealistic targets, as results deteriorated, Keane became more and more withdrawn. A beard symbolically cloaked his face in a period when he began to miss training sessions and started to communicate with chairman Niall Quinn only by text message; his resignation was faxed by his lawyer.

Keane's footballing salvation lies in successfully managing a club with the resources to match his ambitions, but having walked out of Sunderland, that outcome is unlikely. Only a successful stint at a mid-sized EPL club could now open that door and, even if the opportunity was afforded to him, could Keane settle for ambitions of at best securing UEFA Cup soccer? "I think we all know that the Premier League has not seen the last of him," said Quinn. We're less sure.

"Over the years, when they start picking the best teams of all time, he will be in there," opined his former manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. So will George Best -- could Keane be the next Irish Manchester United icon to decline a tortured genius?

"Roy is his harshest critic and he felt he'd completed his journey here," said Quinn. "We spent three days trying hard to find a solution, but he didn't want to come unstuck any further and us find ourselves in deeper, darker territory."

In Sunderland's first match following Keane's departure, the Mackems defended resolutely against Man. United. The champions only won by virtue of a Nemanja Vidic goal from a Michael Carrick shot that rebounded off the post in the dying embers of the match.

Sunderland's season, along with the throng of EPL clubs from ninth to 18th place in the table, could be shaped by the marathon of fixtures over the Christmas and New Year period into either a challenge for a UEFA Cup spot or a scrap to avoid relegation.

That the 10 clubs are separated by only five points makes the nine points available from the three games in the space of eight days all the more important. Matches to look out for amongst this mid-table mini-league are the contest between resurgent sides Newcastle and Tottenham on Dec. 21, Portsmouth vs. West Ham running off the turkey dinner and mince pies on Boxing Day and the bevy of cold turkey pies available at the Northwest derby between Bolton and Wigan on Dec. 28.

At the bottom of the table, Keane's former midfield engine-room partner, Paul Ince, faces a crucial week that will likely determine whether the Blackburn boss is still in a job by the New Year, with huge matches against Stoke, Manchester City and Keane's former employer and Blackburn's relegation rival, Sunderland.