Robbie Keane signing thread

[BFG]

It's about halfway through this clip. Not great quality but you can tell what's going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KpznInpkGo

[FatTony]

I reckon that it'll all go pear shaped and he'll end up back with Spurs, probably in the January transfer window for something like £12m.

[Icon]

I reckon that it'll all go pear shaped and he'll end up back with Spurs, probably in the January transfer window for something like £12m.

Never happen!

[red g]

so surely thats paddy smicer? ........i will get my coat

dont think i was to wrong there

[Marky]

Showing Robbie Keane the exit could prove costly
Telegraph
Just imagine this: last minute of the last game of the season and Robbie Keane, a cockerel rather than a Liver bird on his shirt, goes running through one-on-one against Pepe Reina in front of a fraught Kop.

Keane could kill Anfield's dream of a first title in 19 years, gifting the championship to Manchester United, letting their hated rivals equal their record of 18 titles. Selling Keane back to Spurs would then be officially chronicled as one of the most expensive mistakes in footballing history. So why offload him? Rafael Benitez has some explaining to do.

The last-day doomsday scenario may be far-fetched, as United will surely have de-iced the open-top bus by then, but the 'Curious Case of Keane's Six Months on Merseyside' would take the combined forensic skills and analytical minds of Morse, Poirot and Holmes to unravel.

Liverpool surely do not need the money that urgently; for all the chaos surrounding their irritating American co-owners, a cheque for £15 million-plus (in reality a restructuring of Liverpool's original £20 million payment) cannot form a motive to sell. A title is worth that in prize-money and commercial trappings. So why gamble? Ambitious clubs do not dispense with good strikers mid-season. Very odd. But peer into Benitez's mind.

The decision to send Keane back south was driven through by Benitez, and it is hard to find logic in the Liverpool manager's actions. If Fernando Torres stretches for a ball in training at Melwood on Tuesday morning, and pulls one of those sensitive hamstrings, the songs of praise for the popular Keane will turn into a requiem on Liverpool's season.

After Torres struck twice against Chelsea on Sunday to revive Liverpool's Premier League aspirations, Keane was one of the first in the dressing room congratulating the victors. The Irishman was well liked by Torres, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, and their opinion set the tone. Keane will be missed by the players.

But not by Benitez. Keane arrived at Anfield eager to fulfil a childhood dream of pulling on the red of Liverpool and he was warmly received by the players. But Benitez does not do warm. If the Irishman had been signed by Benitez's predecessor, Gerard Houllier, he would have been given more time to prove himself but the Spaniard is a hard task-master.

Benitez enjoys a reputation of quickly dismissing those who fail to deliver yet it is here that confusion enters the debate. As he drove down the M6 yesterday, Keane could have been forgiven for wondering how Ryan Babel has been given time by Benitez while he has been sent south. Some sympathy must exist for the underperforming Keane, rarely given a run in his best position – through the middle.

Keane's treatment simply exposes the reality that Benitez is a cold manager, clearly an individual raised at icy Real Madrid rather than in Liverpool's more compassionate, family-driven atmosphere. Gerrard's famous lament about Benitez, that his career ambition remained a desire for a "well done off Rafa'', has never rung truer. Benitez's approach to man-management has always been a hand at the throat not an arm around the shoulder. Cold, cold, cold. Benitez is a one-man cold snap.

Now, as he previews Wednesday's FA Cup collision with Everton, Liverpool's manager will seek to justify his reasons for banishing Keane. Benitez will hint at dark, political club reasons, but Keane's exit is purely the Spaniard's doing. In dismissing Keane, he may live to rue not bringing in Emile Heskey.

Anyone looking at the winners and losers in the transfer window will surely conclude that Aston Villa have done the best deal. Only £3.5 million for Heskey! Martin O'Neill, an inspired man-manager, has struck again. Heskey will slot effortlessly into the dressing room. On the pitch, he will take some of the work-load off Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young. Those Liverpool players who craved the selfless Heskey returning to Anfield now sound frustrated people.

Other clubs have excelled during the window. Jimmy Bullard may discover that London is bigger than Hull but this looks a neat piece of business. The fee, £5 million, appears steep for a 30-year-old and the 4½-year contract particularly generous but Hull crave more energy through the middle, and a bit more ebullience in the dressing room. Bullard provides that.

At Everton, David Moyes does not care for players who let the team down on the field or the club down off it so Jo's loan stay at Everton will be intriguing. The Brazilian has been an embarrassment at Manchester City, whose manager Mark Hughes must be heaving a sigh of relief.

A general rule of the January transfer window is that it is a time when the unhappy, the unsettled and the unloved move. Craig Bellamy will bring some energy to City's front-line, a contrast to the lazy Jo.

Ditto El Hadji Diouf at Blackburn Rovers. Like Bellamy, Diouf is a pest on and off the pitch but the Senegalese striker will give Rovers a greater cutting edge. Of the other striking successes, Jay Simpson's loan move from Arsenal gives West Brom hope of staying up while the £3.5million James Beattie will bring goals to Stoke City.

[Abdul Alhazred]

FLMAO at the mangled train wreck of this thread's expectations and cold hard reality.

[ukfootballfan101]

This is the best post i've seen on the Keane saga, and the one that makes the most sense:-

I don't think so. I think that the battle for control is over the fact that he saw Keane as being pointless on his own. He had an idea of selling Alonso, buying Barry to play on the left, buying Keane to play behind Torres, and moving Gerrard alongside Mascher. So you sell one top class player to bring two in that will improve the balance of the squad.

If you don't sign Barry though (and sell Alonso to raise the necessary cash) then there's no point buying Keane. He went through Parry, giving him a list of targets as instructed, and Parry did 1/3 of the job and wasted 20m, that Rafa would have spent elsewhere if he'd known that Barry wasn't coming and Alonso wasn't going.

It's not about having total control, it's about the manager making the decisions about who comes and goes within a budget, rather than giving someone who has no idea about the balance of a squad, and the tactics the manager has in mind, complete control over buying and selling from a shortlist. Rafa's new deal will still involve him approving all purchases through the board, it will just give him a more hands on role, so that he doesn't end up with square pegs to fit into round holes if all the deals don't go as planned.

Keane wasn't sold because Rafa wants to prove a petty point. He was sold because in our best system of play it comes down to a choice between him and Gerrard, and there's only one winner. Also because he's not performed when he's been given his chance in any case. He'd never play on his own up front, so it's not as if he was ever really a back up for Torres anyway. The only way his going will impact on us is if we have two or three injuries amongst our attacking players, including Torres, or if he scores the winner against us on the last day of the season.

[Mattshark]

Showing Robbie Keane the exit could prove costly
Just imagine this: last minute of the last game of the season and Robbie Keane, a cockerel rather than a Liver bird on his shirt, goes running through one-on-one against Pepe Reina in front of a fraught Kop.

*SNIP*

Ditto El Hadji Diouf at Blackburn Rovers. Like Bellamy, Diouf is a pest on and off the pitch but the Senegalese striker will give Rovers a greater cutting edge. Of the other striking successes, Jay Simpson's loan move from Arsenal gives West Brom hope of staying up while the £3.5million James Beattie will bring goals to Stoke City.

Marky. Do you know what plagiarism means? Show you source.

[dww]

Marky. Do you know what plagiarism means? Show you source.

I've added it. Could everyone take note that if you post an article it needs a source and a link if it is available. Cheers

[badpiggy]

on the basis that robbie keane was playing ****e and should have been sold because of this, is it now reasonable to suggest that we should have gotten rid of kuyt, lucas, mascherano, dossena and babel as well? if this decision was based on supposed or unfulfilled football ability and/or performance alone, we should have shipped out all these fairly regular starters as well.

and i love this talk about rafa's "system" and how it couldbn't possibly accomodate RK - what system is this? the one where we play one striker that everyone has been moaning about this season as being too negative?

surely a top level manager can manage the abilites his players have instead of giving them 5 or 6 months to settle and then turf them out. what about rafa and "possibilities" - after a few months rafa decides that a regular premiership scorer - 107 goals in 254 games for spurs - gives us absolutely no possibilties whatsoever and that we're better of without him at all for the rest of the season?

i'm kind of over it and all the rest so i'll stop going on about it. soon. i just don't see the sense of it at all and i find it really unusual for liverpool fans to be so bizarrely damning of a player who has been with us for only a few months. people are already making stuff up about "other liverpool players being disamyed at how **** technically he actually was in training". FFS.

we're a striker down where we currently only have 2 players who can score for us regularly. how the **** can this possibly benefit us?

one other thing - can any one of the posters who claim to understand rafa's one and only systen that keane supposedly couldn't ever fit into explain why rafa bought a player that would essentially be up against SG only to discover that SG is a better player? jesus - who could possibly know that beforehand? or maybe the transfer has nothing to do with robbie keane's "****eness" and a lot to do with boardroom power struggles?

[red g]

on the basis that robbie keane was playing ****e and should have been sold because of this, is it now reasonable to suggest that we should have gotten rid of kuyt, lucas, mascherano, dossena and babel as well? if this decision was based on supposed or unfulfilled football ability and/or performance alone, we should have shipped out all these fairly regular starters as well.

and i love this talk about rafa's "system" and how it couldbn't possibly accomodate RK - what system is this? the one where we play one striker that everyone has been moaning about this season as being too negative?

surely a top level manager can manage the abilites his players have instead of giving them 5 or 6 months to settle and then turf them out. what about rafa and "possibilities" - after a few months rafa decides that a regular premiership scorer - 107 goals in 254 games for spurs - gives us absolutely no possibilties whatsoever and that we're better of without him at all for the rest of the season?

i'm kind of over it and all the rest so i'll stop going on about it. soon. i just don't see the sense of it at all and i find it really unusual for liverpool fans to be so bizarrely damning of a player who has been with us for only a few months. people are already making stuff up about "other liverpool players being disamyed at how **** technically he actually was in training". FFS.

we're a striker down where we currently only have 2 players who can score for us regularly. how the **** can this possibly benefit us?

one other thing - can any one of the posters who claim to understand rafa's one and only systen that keane supposedly couldn't ever fit into explain why rafa bought a player that would essentially be up against SG only to discover that SG is a better player? jesus - who could possibly know that beforehand? or maybe the transfer has nothing to do with robbie keane's "****eness" and a lot to do with boardroom power struggles?

kuyt, lucas, mascherano, dossena and babel apart from Dossena all the rest have time on there hands....and Kuyt is a workhorse( sometimes a cart horse)

maybe a lot of it has to do with Barry, but the fact was Keane never performed whether thats Rafa's fault think he has to take a bit of blame as its obvious he couldnt get the best out of the player, think i have said this before but there personalities never matched jsut as Gerrard and rafa in the early days didnt see eye to eye.

I think we are better off without him as it gives us the best options moving forward ie Gerrard off torres without all this Keane bollocks hanging around Rafa's necks. personally i think everyone is to blame in this, dont think anyone has got out of this looking good specially not Lfc.

[Elvoz]

on the basis that robbie keane was playing ****e and should have been sold because of this, is it now reasonable to suggest that we should have gotten rid of kuyt, lucas, mascherano, dossena and babel as well? if this decision was based on supposed or unfulfilled football ability and/or performance alone, we should have shipped out all these fairly regular starters as well.

and i love this talk about rafa's "system" and how it couldbn't possibly accomodate RK - what system is this? the one where we play one striker that everyone has been moaning about this season as being too negative?

surely a top level manager can manage the abilites his players have instead of giving them 5 or 6 months to settle and then turf them out. what about rafa and "possibilities" - after a few months rafa decides that a regular premiership scorer - 107 goals in 254 games for spurs - gives us absolutely no possibilties whatsoever and that we're better of without him at all for the rest of the season?

i'm kind of over it and all the rest so i'll stop going on about it. soon. i just don't see the sense of it at all and i find it really unusual for liverpool fans to be so bizarrely damning of a player who has been with us for only a few months. people are already making stuff up about "other liverpool players being disamyed at how **** technically he actually was in training". FFS.

we're a striker down where we currently only have 2 players who can score for us regularly. how the **** can this possibly benefit us?

one other thing - can any one of the posters who claim to understand rafa's one and only systen that keane supposedly couldn't ever fit into explain why rafa bought a player that would essentially be up against SG only to discover that SG is a better player? jesus - who could possibly know that beforehand? or maybe the transfer has nothing to do with robbie keane's "****eness" and a lot to do with boardroom power struggles?

i dont normally read long posts but your bang on fella

[dww]

on the basis that robbie keane was playing ****e and should have been sold because of this, is it now reasonable to suggest that we should have gotten rid of kuyt, lucas, mascherano, dossena and babel as well? if this decision was based on supposed or unfulfilled football ability and/or performance alone, we should have shipped out all these fairly regular starters as well.

The thing is that it is not just poor performances with Keane although it was a key factor. he was unhappy with the way Rafa manages his squad, he didn't consistently show the right attitude and by the end he obviously wanted to move. The only fair comparison on your list IMO is Dossena as he is a player who should have slotted straight into the team and could reasonably have been sold after a similar period of under achievement with no history with us to counter balance that.

Kuyt has been decent most of the season and excellent at times. he has always shown the right attitude and is know to fit into a well balanced team for us complementing other players we have. Mascherano has had a comparatively poor season but all the rest goes for him.

Lucas is a young player and i think he has done better than most think. I can see why people might argue he should leave but if he has shown the right attitude I think there is no harm in keeping him, whereas with Keane if Tottenham didn't have a striker problem the fee we got may have been substantially lower.

and i love this talk about rafa's "system" and how it couldbn't possibly accomodate RK - what system is this? the one where we play one striker that everyone has been moaning about this season as being too negative?

surely a top level manager can manage the abilites his players have instead of giving them 5 or 6 months to settle and then turf them out. what about rafa and "possibilities" - after a few months rafa decides that a regular premiership scorer - 107 goals in 254 games for spurs - gives us absolutely no possibilties whatsoever and that we're better of without him at all for the rest of the season?

I think he could theoretically have fitted but as it happens he competes against and does not complement either of our best players. If Rafa feels that having worked with him for 6 months that is a fundamental flaw then I think we were best off cutting our losses.

i'm kind of over it and all the rest so i'll stop going on about it. soon. i just don't see the sense of it at all and i find it really unusual for liverpool fans to be so bizarrely damning of a player who has been with us for only a few months. people are already making stuff up about "other liverpool players being disamyed at how **** technically he actually was in training". FFS.

we're a striker down where we currently only have 2 players who can score for us regularly. how the **** can this possibly benefit us?

one other thing - can any one of the posters who claim to understand rafa's one and only systen that keane supposedly couldn't ever fit into explain why rafa bought a player that would essentially be up against SG only to discover that SG is a better player? jesus - who could possibly know that beforehand? or maybe the transfer has nothing to do with robbie keane's "****eness" and a lot to do with boardroom power struggles?

I don't see the sense in keeping an unhappy player who is competing for a starting place with both of our best players and struggled to add something to the team when they were both there. He isn't a ****e player he just isn't what we need nor a really world class player worth altering the way we play to accommodate.

It's sad as I liked him as a player for Spurs and wanted him to be a success but I don't think he was about to kick on.

[The_weatherman]

on the basis that robbie keane was playing ****e and should have been sold because of this, is it now reasonable to suggest that we should have gotten rid of kuyt, lucas, mascherano, dossena and babel as well? if this decision was based on supposed or unfulfilled football ability and/or performance alone, we should have shipped out all these fairly regular starters as well.

and i love this talk about rafa's "system" and how it couldbn't possibly accomodate RK - what system is this? the one where we play one striker that everyone has been moaning about this season as being too negative?

surely a top level manager can manage the abilites his players have instead of giving them 5 or 6 months to settle and then turf them out. what about rafa and "possibilities" - after a few months rafa decides that a regular premiership scorer - 107 goals in 254 games for spurs - gives us absolutely no possibilties whatsoever and that we're better of without him at all for the rest of the season?

i'm kind of over it and all the rest so i'll stop going on about it. soon. i just don't see the sense of it at all and i find it really unusual for liverpool fans to be so bizarrely damning of a player who has been with us for only a few months. people are already making stuff up about "other liverpool players being disamyed at how **** technically he actually was in training". FFS.

we're a striker down where we currently only have 2 players who can score for us regularly. how the **** can this possibly benefit us?

one other thing - can any one of the posters who claim to understand rafa's one and only systen that keane supposedly couldn't ever fit into explain why rafa bought a player that would essentially be up against SG only to discover that SG is a better player? jesus - who could possibly know that beforehand? or maybe the transfer has nothing to do with robbie keane's "****eness" and a lot to do with boardroom power struggles?

Disappointed we didn't try for Heskey, or harder if we were in for him. Now can we recall Voronin?

I think Rafa didn't want Keane without Barry, it's logical, I think he said I wan't Barry and then Keane. But Parry bought Keane for 20 million and didn't want Barry. So Rafa was stuck with Keane but couldn't change the system as he didn't get Barry.

A midfield of Barry - Mascher - Gerrard is fairly strong, balanced and hard working, with Torres, Keane and Kuyt upfront. Or something along those lines.

[badpiggy]

RAFA: KEANE A GREAT PARTNER FOR TORRES
Jimmy Rice 29 July 2008

Rafa Benitez believes Robbie Keane can be the perfect foil for 33-goal Fernando Torres next term.The Anfield boss sees the pair as a lethal combination of guile and pace capable of firing the Reds to glory in 2008-09.

Speaking exclusively to Liverpoolfc.tv after the 28-year-old signed last night, Benitez said: "We were looking for a player with game intelligence and good movement who could play alongside Torres.

"He can play with Torres up front and also on the right.
"We knew he was a Liverpool fan since forever. We knew that he was a very good signing in terms of the commitment, the quality and the intelligence of the player.

"He is a player who can give to us a lot of goals - normally he gets about 15 each year. We were looking for the workrate he can give to us, the game intelligence and also the goals."

Keane scored an impressive 107 goals in 253 appearances for former club Tottenham - but the penalty box isn't the only place Benitez believes he'll have an impact.

The Reds manager thinks his new boy will have a positive effect on team morale.

"He has experience in the Premier League and also all the reports of his personality and professionalism are fantastic. He can be a good example for the young players," said Benitez.

"I feel like he has enough experience in the game and that he has a very good mentality. He is very hungry, so everything is positive."

After being unveiled to the press this morning, Keane could travel with his new teammates to Villarreal.

Whenever he does make his debut, it is likely to be in the number seven shirt.

Benitez added: "Yes, we were talking about the number, and the big names that have had this number, so it will be inspirational for him to have it too."

One of the first questions fans will be asking when Keane does finally make his bow is whether they'll see his famous cartwheel goal celebration.

The man himself says it would be rude not to bring it out once for the Kop, though Benitez has told supporters not to expect spectacular celebrations week in, week out.

He said: "We will talk. It is important to score and also to celebrate afterwards, but he has to be careful just in case!"

wow - how wrong was rafa about his position (bought to be on the right?!), personality, ability, mentality, influence, workrate, intelligence and goalscoring (only 7 half way through the season for a team still in 3 competitions from a player who should get "15 goals a season"...).

takes a big man to admit he was that wrong so quickly about a purely footballing matter.