NICKY COLGAN has described as a "huge boost and a very nice surprise", the phone call from Roy Keane that led yesterday to him becoming the latest Ireland international to sign for Sunderland.

"I've been training with Bradford and Scunthorpe, working to keep my fitness up and when I saw I had a message on my phone from Roy, everything went through my head but really, I suppose I thought he wanted my opinion on another goalkeeper.

"It was great when he asked me to come up and sign for the club," said the 34-year-old. "He made no promises about playing or being on the bench or what would happen at the end of the season but I'm going to commit myself fully to it as I have to everything during my career."

Colgan has spent time at 12 different English and Scottish clubs since leaving Drogheda United for Chelsea back in 1992, making 282 first-team appearances along the way, most of them for Hibernian and Barnsley, but after visiting the Stadium of Light to complete his move he is hugely impressed by his new club.

"It's the best set-up I've ever been at, even Chelsea pre-Abramovich wouldn't have come close to matching it and I'm really looking forward to making the most of the opportunity."

He is, he says, particularly pleased by Keane's decision to seek him out given he has struggled to get first-team football during the past couple of seasons. "It's really nice to think that somewhere along the line, on international duty I presume, there must have been something about me that made a positive impression. I'll certainly be doing everything in my powers to repay his show of faith."

Sunderland also completed the signing of Finnish international Teemu Tainio yesterday while Younes Kaboul, whose agent had last week said the player wouldn't go to the club "even if there was an earthquake" agreed personal terms and, natural disasters permitting, will have a medical today.

Meanwhile, up the road at Newcastle United, manager Kevin Keegan laughed off the long-running rumour that Shay Given might be sold, with Arsenal the club most mentioned as his next employer.

"Why get rid of a top player?" asked Keegan "We're looking to bring them to play alongside the ones we've already got.

"Shay has come back in excellent shape," he said. "He started training just as everybody else was finishing and was just about fit to play in the last game of the season. One of the physios has been out to Spain and while he was holiday he was working so he's come back very, very fit."

Steve Coppell says he had been monitoring Noel Hunt's career since hearing all about him from his brother, Stephen, when the pair of them were together at Crystal Palace and suggests the player's flexibility and enthusiasm can make him a major asset as Reading battle to regain their place in the Premier League.

"We felt that he would be a good addition. He's flexible, he can play right across the line up front. Like Stephen, he is a wholehearted player. He led the line on a number of occasions in Scotland last year.

"He can link up and, like his brother, he can get on the end of things.

"He's got a terrific leap for a small bloke, and he's infectious. He's young and hungry, and we hope that can rub off on the some of the other players here."

It's unclear how long the Hunts will be together at Reading, with Stephen the subject of ongoing transfer speculation since Sunderland tried to buy him in the January window but Coppell insists at least one significant hurdle has to be overcome if the midfielder is to move now.

"Firstly," he said, "for anyone to go, someone's got to make an offer and quite genuinely we haven't been inundated with them.

"Our phone hasn't been ringing off, that's for sure. We may get a late run but at the moment players have to accept that we pay them well and I'd expect them to commit fully to us."

Kevin Doyle has also been linked with a move away and admits that: "you always want to play in the Premier league. But as long as I'm at Reading," he said, "then I'm happy here."