divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/99455?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Withdrawn+and+isolated%2C+Keane+quits+Sunderland+by+text+messagech=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Premier+League+%28Football%29%2CSunderland+%28Football%29%2CRoy+Keane%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CPremier+Leaguec6=Louise+Taylorc7=2008_12_05c8=1129275c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Premier+Leaguec13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FPremier+League" width="1" height="1" //divpRoy Keane became so introspective and elusive during the closing period of his time in charge at Sunderland that often the only way Niall Quinn could contact him was by text message. It is understood that was how his resignation as manager was initially delivered to the chairman./ppQuinn handled Keane's departure with typical class, generosity and dignity yesterday. "Everybody at the club has got a huge respect for Roy," said Quinn, who stressed that Keane's motives were unselfish and that he had not demanded a pay-off. "He lifted this place off its knees," he added. "Roy Keane hasn't been sacked because we've a bad team, he's resigning because we've a good team he feels he can't bring on any further. There's a big difference there. You hear the term amicable, that's actually the way it is here."/ppThe chairman's polished outward demeanour camouflaged the fraught reality of the preceding few days when an increasingly withdrawn Keane oscillated between a determination to try to revive the fortunes of a side that had lost six of their seven previous games and a desire to quit. Quinn initially offered his manager space over the weekend to think things through and on Sunday travelled to Portugal to "clear" his own head. Keane failed to attend any of Sunderland's training sessions this week - a not uncommon occurrence - and, when Quinn returned to England on Wednesday, the pair failed to determine a viable way forward./ppAlthough Sunderland's board hoped Keane would continue they were concerned that he had lost the support of a dressing room harbouring constantly rotated players who seemed intimidated and alienated by their maverick and temperamental manager. A watershed occurred 10 weeks ago when Sunderland scraped past Northampton Town in the Carling Cup and individuals were shocked at the ferocity with which Keane hurled personal obscenities at them./ppKeane could or would not soften his stance, though, and yesterday morning informed Quinn he was not returning. His resignation was subsequently received in a formal fax sent by his solicitor, Michael Kennedy. In an attendant statement Keane said: "I would like to thank my staff, players, Niall Quinn and, in particular, the fans for their support during my time at Sunderland and I would like to wish the club every success in the future." Last night the winger Carlos Edwards said: "The players still had full confidence in him and are kind of let down in a way."/ppSources close to Sam Allardyce quickly made it plain that the former Bolton and Newcastle manager would welcome an invitation to manage the club he once played for and Phil Brown, a boyhood Sunderland fan, was reiterating his commitment to Hull. David O'Leary, meanwhile, was among the early contenders while the former West Ham manager Alan Curbishley was prominent in bookmakers' lists./ppThe relationship between Keane and Quinn had often been hands-off and conducted by text but gained further distance once Ellis Short, the Irish-American financier, became Sunderland's leading shareholder in September. When Short inquired why Keane had not signed a contract extension to replace the deal due to expire next June and questioned some of the manager's more eccentric and expensive buys, even the diplomatic chairman struggled to maintain harmony./ppSix weeks ago things looked deceptively rosy when Sunderland beat Newcastle but already Keane was struggling to control two of his more controversial signings, Pascal Chimbonda and El Hadji Diouf, and the club subsequently slid into relegation trouble. "Roy is his harshest critic and he felt he'd completed his journey here," Quinn said. "We spent three days trying hard to find a solution but he didn't want to come unstuck any further and us find ourselves in deeper, darker territory."/ppQuinn was adamant it had not been a selfish decision. "All he wanted this morning was to make sure that the staff he brought in were looked after. He never once spoke about himself or a settlement." The chairman suggested the stress of Premier League management had taken its toll: "Roy brought amazing standards to this club, his compelling nature changed mind-sets. But the pressure is intense."/ppRicky Sbragia, the head coach, will be in charge for the trip to Manchester United, aided by the reserve team coach Neil Bailey and the midfielder Dwight Yorke./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague"Premier League/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/sunderland"Sunderland/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/roy-keane"Roy Keane/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Si7rMHHmLMz6JMdPYT9zJ5r81ZU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Si7rMHHmLMz6JMdPYT9zJ5r81ZU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

In June, Dorian Cox, guitarist for UK indie rock back The Long Blondes, suffered a paralyzing stroke that made it impossible for him to play his instrument. The band was forced to call it quits. Now though, Cox is learning to use a SaeboFlex, a glove outfitted with springs and levers that helps stroke patients grasp objects and regain hand function. He hopes to someday pick up his instrument again. "My right arm and leg aren't really usable so I can't play guitar," Cox explained to the Telegraph. "That was a nightmare because it meant the band couldn't carry on and my livelihood had suddenly gone..." "I know things might never be the same again and nobody can give me a definite answer about whether I'll play guitar again but I'm getting back on track," Cox said. "Long Blondes guitarist Dorian Cox back on track with 'bionic hand'" (Thanks, Gil Kaufman!)...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=5d4efac11c86080ae64497e43f9b4fa1p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=5d4efac11c86080ae64497e43f9b4fa1p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=5d4efac11c86080ae64497e43f9b4fa1" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

Rayner Coss (oratory/bass) of UK's psychedelic brutal death metal masters MITHRAS has issued the following update: I have some sad news for all our MITHRAS fans; the Zero Tolerance Christmas bash on the 14th of December will be my last show with MITHRAS as I am leaving the band.

pProject Kangaroo, a Hulu-like UK VOD JV from BBC Worldwide, ITV (LSE: ITV) and Channel 4, would reduce competition and harm consumers, Britain's anti-trust authority ruled Wednesday morning, even before the project has launched. The Competition Commission said the online unification of the UK's three leading broadcasters would see them lock up the market for wholesale and retail VOD TV supply. It's proposed either prohibiting Kangaroo, compelling the partners to fairly offer their VOD content to third parties or making changes to the way Kangaroo interacts with the broadcasters' own websites. /p p Each of the the three broadcasters already offers free VOD catch-up of TV shows from the last seven days on their own websites. Conceived in 2007, Kangaroo would see them come together to offer shows from outside that window, either with ad support or as pay-to-download. Still without a confirmed name, though rumoured to be called "See-Saw", Kangaroo has been in limbo for most of this year. Kangaroo referred itself to the UK's junior Office Of Fair Trading in April for what it thought would be a minor inquiry, but the office referred it up to the Competition Commission, which will now work with the JV and rivals on possible solutions before its final February 8 deadline. Interim CEO Rod Henwood is in charge after Ashley Highfield's sudden departure this month to Microsoft (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=MSFT" class="ticker" title="MSFT"NSDQ: MSFT/a). a href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-breaking-kangaroo-will-be-anti-competitive-commission-says/" title="Full story at paidContent:UK"Full story at paidContent:UK/a... /p pstrongRelated/strong/p ul class="related" lia href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-breaking-kangaroo-will-be-anti-competitive-commission-says/"Kangaroo Will Be Anti-Competitive, Commission Says/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-breaking-highfield-quits-kangaroo-for-microsoft-will-lead-online-busine/"Highfield Quits Kangaroo For Microsoft, Will Lead UK Online Business/a/li /ul piOur streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. a href="http://m.paid.mwap.at/"Click here to download/a./i /p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=HWnazx"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=HWnazx" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=0xAuO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=0xAuO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=kfjGO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=kfjGO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=WeACo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=WeACo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=uWKVO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=uWKVO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=FeC0O"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=FeC0O" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/473369809" height="1" width="1"/