Dunne signs!

After months of speculation, Richard Dunne has signed a new four year deal. Just five weeks ago we were confronted with this BBC story, forecasting Dunne's inevitable departure. But now he's signed on until 2012, and is "delighted to be able to stay."

Naturally I'm pleased. To have won four consecutive Player of the Season awards is a fantastic achievement, as is making 257 league appearances (the most since Ian Brightwell?) and almost 300 in all competitions. I am not as much of a Dunne fan as some: I don't think he was our best player last season, or even our best defender. He has bad games (as many as Corluka, fewer than Richards) and when he does the whole team suffers. But that's not nearly the whole point. He's a great leader who has brought Richards on very far in only eighteen months of first team football. Moreover, he's a vital touchstone of stability, the final remaining link with the Keegan, and even Royle eras for a club which has is too often in a state of flux.

And so the signing of Dunne, significant as it is on its own terms, points to something more important. There was a real sense a few months ago that everything would collapse with the departure of Eriksson. He was so popular with the players that they would follow him out of the door, and in 2008/09 we would be relegated with a team made up of academy graduates and aging galacticos. But, just one month after Eriksson's depature, none of this has materialised. No players have left against our wishes, Dunne has signed a new deal, Hart seems likely to do the same - even transfer deals initiated under the old regime (am I right in thinking Jo was originally found by Tord Grip?) have been followed through. Although everything could have collapsed around the departing Eriksson, none of it has. For maintaining this stability, great credit must go to the very impressive Garry Cook. But, even more than that, it ought to go to the man who appointed him: the chairman.