Roy Keane has vowed to return to football management after sensationally walking out on Sunderland last Thursday.

Keane hit the sporting headlines all around the world when he brought his reign as Black Cats to an end just days after his fourth defeat in five Premier League games.

Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn failed to persuade the former Ireland captain to change his mind, but Keane said on Monday that he will manage again.

"I am grateful to the club, players and fans at Sunderland, and most especially the staff, for their support during my first management appointment," stated Keane on the official League Manager's Association (LMA) website.

"I have experienced and learned a tremendous amount in the last 27 months and enjoyed the rigors of being a manager. I look forward to building on those experiences and, some time in the future, returning to football management."

The departure of Keane dominated the sports pages for days with opinions, as always, split on his behavior and his latest decision.

Sunderland's new Irish American owner Ellis Short was even forced to apologize to Keane after one of his consultants had questioned the Corkonian's sanity.

The LMA confirmed on Tuesday that Keane had accepted the apology after comments from Per-Magnus Andersson, an associate of Short, had upset him.

"This attack on Roy by Per-Magnus Andersson was completely inaccurate and inappropriate. I'm delighted that Ellis Short chose to apologize so promptly," said LMA chief executive Richard Bevan.

Andersson, allegedly the new chairman of Drumaville Consortium which owns Sunderland, was reported to have claimed that Keane's "unstable personality" was hindering the club's progress.

"In the end the demands on him became too big, the pressure became too much," Andersson said in The Guardian.

"Personally I think that he has quite an unstable personality. He is not an Alex Ferguson, which many people think. He is a bit of a maverick and he didn't succeed on the pitch because of his pit-bull mentality."

Chicago entrepreneur Short, now the largest shareholder in the club after buying out the Irish-based Drumaville, distanced himself from the remarks as well.

Short told www.safc.com, "The comments reported in a newspaper today do not represent me, Drumaville or the board.

"For the record, I have nothing but admiration for Roy Keane and am grateful for all he has done for the club and I wish him well for the future.

"With regards to the future, (club chairman) Niall Quinn and his executive board are the only people authorized to speak on behalf of the club, and they alone will be responsible for identifying a successor to Roy Keane in due course."

Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn broke the news last Thursday afternoon when he said, "First of all on behalf of everyone here I would like to pay thanks to Roy Keane for all his hard work in progressing this club, lifting its status and growing its worldwide profile.

"Roy deserves huge respect for his contribution and the manner in which he guided the club from the depths of the Championship back to the Premier League. His winning mentality and single-mindedness were just what this club needed when Drumaville took over shortly before his arrival.

"Roy's decision to stand aside and allow someone else to take charge of the next chapter sums up his desire to always do what is best for the club. Even in his departure he has been more concerned for the welfare of the players and his staff than himself.

"The board has reluctantly accepted his decision and wish him and his family well for the future."

Quinn has since confirmed that the club has been inundated for applications for the job, with Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishley and Gordon Strachan among the bookies' early favorites.

"There have been over 30 sensible applications so far, which is great," Quinn told Setanta Sports.

"Roy was a dream to work with and will be very hard to replace. We will not get another like him, that's for sure. But we will look at all the available options, trawl around and come to a conclusion over the next couple of weeks.

"I wouldn't advise anyone to have a bet. The reason these odds exist are because the bookmakers make money from them. We have not sat down to discuss anything yet, other than to confirm the number of applications we have received.

"We just intend to take it easy and make the right decision."

Meanwhile, former Irish striker Tony Cascarino has claimed that Keane won't find another club to touch him after walking out on Sunderland.

Cascarino told the London based talkSport radio station, "He's taken the easy option. He's not rolled up his sleeves and even with as much courage as Roy Keane says he's got, this is the end for him.

"He'll not manage again. No one will give him the opportunity to manage a football club because they won't trust him. That's the bottom line.

"Up until the last few weeks where it's gone pear-shaped and he's not had the results, I thought he'd done a good job. But they are only two wins away from mid-table.

"You're going to have bad results in your management career as you do in your playing career. But you don't just walk away." Cascarino also revealed his doubts that Keane ever united the dressingroom.

He added, "What amazes me about Roy, and I've shared many dressingrooms and played lots of matches with him, is that he would be very insular about the way he felt and very rarely said things like he says via the media, and that's very strange for someone who says they are very honest.

"He never said things in the dressingroom, very little came from Roy, he didn't have friendships, he didn't care and ultimately his dealing with people has been his downfall.

"Knowing Roy, he's never had a dressingroom. He's never had anybody on his side because he wouldn't get that close to people.

"He would have them at arm's length all the time and if you look at his signings, he's churned players over at an incredible rate."