What a waste of £80m? Keane's track record of transfers

Hits

Kenwyne Jones (Southampton, £6m)
Roy Keane’s best signing to date. Arrived unheralded, but has been hailed by John Terry, the Chelsea captain, as his toughest aerial opponent and has been sorely missed through injury this season. The one caveat is that top-quality strikers should score more goals, although service is an issue.

Kieran Richardson (Manchester United, £5.5m)
Found it difficult last season after his arrival from United, but has been Sunderland’s most improved player this time, giving energy in central midfield and proving dangerous at free kicks. Has been tipped for an England recall.

Anton Ferdinand, (West Ham United, £8m)
Ferdinand has been enthused by his move away from London, performing adroitly in the centre of defence. Bizarrely dropped before last Saturday’s defeat by Bolton Wanderers, falling foul of his manager by giving a television interview before the game against his former club.

Andy Reid (Charlton Athletic, £4m)
A crowd favourite, with talent (and calories) to burn, the Ireland international was a pivotal figure in Sunderland maintaining their Premier League status in May after joining in January. After a summer of expensive and various acquisitions, Reid has been underused.

Dwight Yorke (Sydney, £200,000)
Has been useful on the pitch and an influential figure in the dressing-room, a contemporary of Keane’s at Old Trafford who knows the manager as well as anybody (not that well). Bringing Yorke back to England set a tone.

Misses

Craig Gordon (Heart of Midlothian, £9m)
Had been performing better until injury intervened, but few performances in goal have been commanding and he is still to justify the club-record fee that hangs around his shoulders. Barely looked fit against Bolton, suggesting that his selection was an error.

Michael Chopra (Cardiff City, £5m)
Scored some important goals but not enough to make sense of a price tag that took the breath away when he was signed in July last year or to explain his hasty return, on loan, to Cardiff 15 months later. Has endured personal problems.

Pascal Chimbonda (Tottenham Hotspur, £4.9m)
Keane knew that he was buying a talented but temperamental full back, but predictable disciplinary problems since moving north suggest flaws in management. The Irishman promised to relax his style to deal with different and complex characters, but has he?

Greg Halford (Reading, £2.5m)
A calamitous acquisition who started only eight league games before falling out of favour. Shipped out to Charlton Athletic and then Sheffield United on loan. Symptomatic of a scattergun approach to new signings, even if the scale of Sunderland’s progress has made high turnover necessary.

Rade Prica (Aalborg, £2m)
Rade who? Signed in January, the Sweden forward is yet to start his first match for Sunderland but, naturally, is still picking up his wages. The squad is replete with similar casualties, whether on loan or still on Wearside, and the effect they have on the mood of the club is a great imponderable.