The Sunderland chairman is pleased with the way talks have progressed but reckons that club stability and ambition were always going to be the key to Keane wanting to stay at Sunderland – and not wages.

Quinn said: "We have met his solicitor twice now and it is getting to an area where the next meeting we have, I think, we will be closer to putting something onto paper."

"I think Roy is in a good place. He understands a lot more about football management now than from day one.

"The media were getting inquisitive, becoming worried that I hadn't offered Roy a contract. But I didn't want to offer him one until I had a good plan in place behind the scenes.

"That is more important to Roy Keane. The delay – if you can call it that – isn't because we were wondering about what we had to pay Roy Keane; we were wondering about what we would do with him for the next two years.

"We were wondering where the club could go. That is why the guys behind the scenes have been superb.

"We know exactly where we stand. We have got a chance. We have bought and sold a lot of players since Roy came – starting in the Championship level and then progressing to the bottom of the Premier League – and now we hope to move up a bit.

"We have bought and sold three different sets of players. We know now that we have got some real quality there. It is just a case of adding more quality to the squad as opposed to the quantity of the past."