I played with Roy Keane for many years and he was always very frank. But he is honest without being open. No one ever gets close enough to him to understand his motivations or intentions. It’s why I’m surprised he has been questioning his own future as Sunderland manager so publicly, saying that he asks himself every day if he is the right man and taking all the blame for the team’s recent poor form.

Those are very dangerous admissions and they are thoughts that Roy should have kept private. He may be right that the players are not really bothered who their manager is — in this sport it’s every man for himself. But players do care if there is a climate of uncertainty at a club, which his comments risk creating. And that can’t go down well in the boardroom, either.

Roy and Niall Quinn, the chairman, are opposites personality-wise. I wonder how diplomatic Quinny can continue to be when Sunderland look set for a relegation battle, which I know is far less than the board were expecting this season having given Keane £80 million to spend in the transfer market.

It’s the first time in his managerial career that he’s faced turmoil. It’s all come so quickly. As recently as October, when Sunderland drew with Arsenal and Fulham and won a derby against Newcastle, the team looked very good. There are talented players, they’ve just been suddenly knocked off course. But after what Roy’s said, the spotlight is fully trained on him not them, so the talk is of the manager’s future instead of where it should be — focused on the team’s fight to stay up.

That will suit one or two of the squad who will feel happy that their manager is shouldering all the responsibility for the results. Roy’s bought some temperamental characters and with the January transfer window approaching they might seize on the instability as an excuse to engineer an escape from a tough situation.

Roy needs now to do the opposite of what he’s said: let everyone know from boardroom to dressing-room to fans that he’s here for the tough times as well as the good ones. He has never cared about the plaudits he’s received, so why should the boos affect him? No one gets close to Roy and that’s how he likes it, but he can’t afford to be distant at the moment, or have anyone doubt his desire. He needs to bond this group of players together, with him at the centre, and start talking positively, no matter that the weekend brings a trip to Old Trafford.