Keane: Marcus won't meddle

MARCUS Evans has assured new manager Roy Keane that he will be given free rein to get Ipswich Town into the Premier League.

In return Keane has shown his full commitment to the Blues by promising to move his family to East Anglia.

After taking Sunderland into the top flight as Championship title winners, and then keeping them in the Premier League for a full season, the 37-year-old resigned after he felt unacceptable interference was coming from new shareholder Ellis Short and chairman Niall Quinn.

But Keane is happy that he will be left to get on with his job at Portman Road, bankrolled by owner Evans and fully supported by new chief executive Simon Clegg.

Keane said: “Marcus Evans has given me assurances that he won't interfere.

“I have no problem people being involved in the football club. You have to respect the people that own the football club, as I did the people at Sunderland but when they are telling you what you should be doing with the team, or where you should be living, then it is over.”

The former Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Celtic and Republic of Ireland midfielder feels that did not happen at the Stadium of Light towards the latter part of his stewardship.

He said: “One of the big conditions I had when I went to Sunderland was there would be no interference in team affairs.

“The goalposts were moved and promises were broken.

“I had signed a three year contract and the three year plan was on target despite two or three poor results. The results in the end had nothing to do with it.

“You have to be happy and relaxed with the trustworthiness of the people you are working with.

“When I met with the owners of that club I must have said about 5,000 times that I would do it my way, especially in team affairs, but in the final few months everyone jumped to their own conclusions but I knew in my own mind the time had come.

“When I took the Sunderland job it was the right job for me. Now the Ipswich job is the right job for me.”

Keane has signed a two-year deal with Ipswich and aims to get them back into the top flight by May 2010.