Gordon Strachan and Sam Allardyce battle to replace Roy Keane as Sunderland boss

Roy Keane walked out on Sunderland yesterday, leaving Sam Allardyce hoping to take over but facing a battle with Celtic boss Gordon Strachan.

Keane quit the Wearsiders yesterday after 100 games in charge, because he couldn't guarantee he could lead the club away from "deeper darker territory" following his first managerial crisis.

Final confirmation of his departure arrived at Sunderland via text and fax as chairman Niall Quinn admitted that Keane felt he'd taken the club as far as he could following three days of "intense" discussions, as revealed by Mirror Sport yesterday.

Keane quit without a penny in compensation, tormented by five weeks of turmoil. That included a miserable run of defeats and fears he had lost the goodwill of his players because of his often brutal man-management.

But Keane was also being asked to appreciate the business side of running a club, having spent £80 million, with new majority shareholder US-Irish investor Ellis Short pumping in cash and wanting results and forward planning.

Allardyce, a former Sunderland player and coach, is the leading contender and friends have confirmed he wants the job, 11 months after being sacked by Newcastle after just 233 days as boss.

Quinn held a board meeting last night to discuss his early options. Strachan, is a surprise contender, and others who are expressing an interest include out of work David O'Leary, Alan Curbishley and former England boss Steve McClaren.

Hull boss Phil Brown is another potential candidate while foreign interest will include Dick Advocaat at Zenit St Petersburg and former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier.
Emotional Quinn admitted Sunderland had gone from "dancing in the streets" just five weeks ago after beating Newcastle, to "sadness" at Keane walking out.

Keane's departure was unconventional, with Quinn "defending him to the hilt", admitting he wanted to "find a solution" to the problems, as his manager's mood swung from quitting to staying and back again to resigning in see-saw 72 hours.

Ultimately the 37 year old decided he had "come to the end of the journey" at Sunderland. Keane faced challenges to his authority from disgruntled players, some of whom regarded him as a bully, and also appeared to lose his own appetite to battle on. He was not a regular at the training ground, preferring to become involved close to match day.

Quinn said: "After the weekend defeat, without going into too much detail, we gave him a bit of time to himself because everyone hurts after a result like that. He was down, and we tried to move it along but we couldn't quite get there.

"Six (defeats) out of seven games builds up its own pressure and Roy's tough on himself. He's got huge standards and probably felt.....

"Old Trafford's a tough game on Saturday but after that we've got a home game and we're playing teams down there near us and I'd hoped Roy would judge himself perhaps after them. He got to where he got to.

"Roy Keane hasn't been sacked because we've a bad team, he's resigning because we've a good team he feels he can't bring any further and there's a big difference there.

"He lifted this place off its knees. He's had a tremendous influence and it's a shame that today things happen this way. I'd hoped I'd never have to do this day.

"I spoke many times about Roy and I being in a partnership and it feels like a partnership has dissolved now. I wish him real well in the future and maybe now he'll be able to go and do a few things I didn't let him do by getting to him so soon after he'd finished playing.

"He'll get a bit of time to himself now to recharge and get going again and I think we all know the Premier League hasn't seen the last of Roy Keane. He's got great things to come.

"Having slipped in the last few weeks, Roy, as he says himself, is his harshest critic, and he felt that he'd completed his journey here. He didn't want to get unstuck any further and find ourselves in deeper darker territory. That's the measure of the guy.

"In nine times out of 10 in situations like this I'm sure the chairman is saying how the manager is trying to keep his job. It was the other way round here. We spent three days trying hard to see if we could find a solution. It's a tough one.

"He's brought standards to this club that are amazing and it's intense to do that. He's a respected figure around the world, the media pressure is intense, the fans pressure is intense and I've tried for a couple of years to keep as much of that pressure off him as possible but the Premier League is the Premier League."

Quinn insists Keane has left a healthy legacy for a new boss to take forward. Sunderland many be in the bottom three but Quinn said: "He's left a brilliant set of players who are four or five points from eighth. Go back to the day he came here (when the club was bottom of the Championship), we'd give him the crown jewels if he'd have been able to achieve that for us."

Asked if Keane was a quitter, Quinn added: "I'd disagree totally. If you saw it from in close, and you saw the things he turned around by his compelling nature and ability to turn mind-sets, he's turned a region's mind-set here and how anybody could label him a quitter is beyond me.

"This is a decision based on what's best for the team going forward he's a decisive person and we've reluctantly accepted that."

Get your hands on this week's estimated jackpot of £100,000 by playing the New Football Pools .

Find out what our resident Premier League fan bloggers think - and let them know your views.

Follow every Premier League game live with our brilliant Match Tracker .