ROY KEANE and Sunderland are embroiled in a row over an unpaid bonus that could end up in a legal battle.

The new Ipswich manager walked out on the Black Cats in November with his side in the bottom three.

After being surprisingly installed at Portman Road last week, it emerged that Keane wants assurances from Sunderland that a bonus he feels he is entitled to will be paid.

The money is believed to relate to Sunderland retaining their Premier League status this season, despite Keane leaving the club three months into the campaign while they were in the relegation zone.

The club, who are not commenting on the matter, are expected to vigorously contend any potential legal action taken by the 37-yearold.

Keane spoke last week of the simmering tensions that still exist over his time at the Stadium of Light – admitting he will never be a lovable character and had no intention of trying to become one.

And he took the opportunity to have a dig at a few of his former Black Cats’ players.

“I didn’t go to Sunderland to be popular, I didn’t come to Ipswich to be popular,”

said Keane, whose first game in charge on Saturday was a 3-0 win at Cardiff.

“When I left Sunderland, it’s unfortunate, but a lot of lies can be told as well.

I’m sure if one or two players were happy to see me go, I could tell you who they are.”

Keane also accused some of his former staff at the Stadium of Light of being disloyal and too close to chairman Niall Quinn – seen as an attack on his successor Ricky Sbragia.

“The thing about Tony (Loughlin, his assistant) is that I know he’ll cover my back,”

said Keane.

“And not all staff do that. A lot of staff get too close to the chairman, too close to the media.”

Sbragia has more on his mind this morning than his former manager – with Saturday’s 3-0 capitulation at West Brom plunging the Black Cats back into the relegation mire.

The Sunderland boss will hold his post-mortem this morning and was adamant the performance will not be repeated.

“I hope they are ashamed and embarrassed – they should be,” said Sbragia. “It’s not acceptable for players wearing the Sunderland top.

“It’s not acceptable to them and it’s not acceptable to the people who keep coming to see us. We can’t afford to put on any more performances like that.

“We have to get this out of our system now. We will show them their errors on Monday then start to work towards Everton on Tuesday.

“We won’t give them extra training – it’s a physical thing. If you bring them in for the sake of bringing them in it doesn’t do you any good.”

Skipper Phil Bardsley summed up the feeling amongst the players after the defeat.

“We let the manager down, the staff down and the fans down and it’s up to us to move on from this,” said Bardsley.

“It’s difficult to take and for myself, wearing the captain’s armband, to know we weren’t good enough and we can’t do that.

“It was a game to be won.

We were looking to take it on from the two performances against Manchester United and Hull and we’ve not done that.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot in one way but we’ll bounce back.”