was / is keane worth 20 million?

[Kenneth]

We paid a lot for Keane but at the moment he's part of a winning team so it looks as though paying a lot for him was worth it.

A better way to look at it is, has the £40million we spent on Torres and Keane made us better? The answer is clearly yes and even if we had to suddenly sell our big players to keep the wolf from the door, would we get more than the £40mil back for the pair of them. I'd have to say yes, easily.

Well it's certainly a different way of looking at it. Not sure it's better though.

[The Birdman]

Garcia cost less than 1/3 of the the amount we paid for Keane, but yet contributed to more goals/assists than Keane has so far in their respective first 4 months. And Garcia wasn't even a striker - I'd still have him over Keane. At the end of the day, Garcia proved he was a matchwinner. What would you rather have a - a striker who costs £20m, works hard, completes more air shots in 4 months than Andy Cole did in his whole career, scores a couple of goals and gets a couple of assists. Or would you rather have a concise striker who puts the ball in the back of the net? No matter what anyone says, Keane has proved nothing and has been nothing short of woeful. In fact, I'm pretty certain Voronin got more goals and assists in his first 4 months than Keane has and thats saying something.

Saj - do you think we would be top of the league and in a position to qualify for the 2nd stage of the Champions league if we had Garcia in the team still instead of Keane?
It's a sensible question given your post, my answer would be no. In fact I think we would be nowhere near the top of the league if Garcia was having to play the same role Keane has with Torres injured.

[rage]

We paid a lot for Keane but at the moment he's part of a winning team so it looks as though paying a lot for him was worth it.

A better way to look at it is, has the £40million we spent on Torres and Keane made us better? The answer is clearly yes and even if we had to suddenly sell our big players to keep the wolf from the door, would we get more than the £40mil back for the pair of them. I'd have to say yes, easily.

come on that's not a better way to look at it, its nonsense. you're legitimising keane's cost by linking him with the sale of torres.

we would make a huge loss when/if we sell robbie keane, no hiding the fact whatsoever. its not just about his form but his age.

[saj]

Saj - do you think we would be top of the league and in a position to qualify for the 2nd stage of the Champions league if we had Garcia in the team still instead of Keane?
It's a sensible question given your post, my answer would be no. In fact I think we would be nowhere near the top of the league if Garcia was having to play the same role Keane has with Torres injured.

What you're saying is hypothetical. What if Garcia wasn't playing for us in 2004/2005, would we have won the champions League? We play better football now than when Garcia for us initially with us. So why wouldn't he play better in the current team than he already did for us? Garcia had the ability to score goals out of nothing and in games such as the one against Tottenham, Stoke etc where we desparately needed a goal he would have been useful. Again, this is all hypothetical. What I am saying is look at Garcia's record in his first 20 games for us and compare it to Keane's. Garcia played in a shocking team and one of our weekest squads since the early 90's, a team that had no fluency and no ability to hold onto the ball. But yet he produced more than Keane has and Keane has it easy compared to the Garcia team of 2004/2005 - Keane should be banging in the goals/assists with all the players behind him.

FYI - we've always qualified for the 2nd stage of the Champions League, with or without Garcia. And also with Garcia in our team, we achieved out highest ever points total in the premiership with 82!

[The Birdman]

What you're saying is hypothetical. What if Garcia wasn't playing for us in 2004/2005, would we have won the champions League? We play better football now than when Garcia for us initially with us. So why wouldn't he play better in the current team than he already did for us? Garcia had the ability to score goals out of nothing and in games such as the one against Tottenham, Stoke etc where we desparately needed a goal he would have been useful. Again, this is all hypothetical. What I am saying is look at Garcia's record in his first 20 games for us and compare it to Keane's. Garcia played in a shocking team and one of our weekest squads since the early 90's, a team that had no fluency and no ability to hold onto the ball. But yet he produced more than Keane has and Keane has it easy compared to the Garcia team of 2004/2005 - Keane should be banging in the goals/assists with all the players behind him.

FYI - we've always qualified for the 2nd stage of the Champions League, with or without Garcia. And also with Garcia in our team, we achieved out highest ever points total in the premiership with 82!

I tell you what, lets agree to disagree
IMO Garcia is and was vastly over rated, he produced 1 flash of brilliance in a game then was generally rubbish for the rest of it.
He suited the European Games more than the league and tended to go missing in Premier League Games, Keane while not having as much flair (perhaps) is at least contributing to the team and a winning team at that for every minute he's on the pitch.

Or another way of looking at it is Keane is currently playing for Liverpool so lets support him for as long as he's here and spend less time worrying about ex players

[MrsB]

He probably isn't worth it at the moment because I doubt we would be able to sell him for this amount. That can change though, and I hope it will.

[Kev_81]

I'm still concerned that people think there is more to come (i don't mean on here), what we have seen is pretty much it i think. Levy saw us coming.

Isn't part of our best 11 for me 20m or not.

[dww]

For me the time to judge is at the end of the season and the criteria I would put are that he has improved our team/squad by making a similar contribution to us to what Rooney and Tevez have in recent years for United. That means he needs to contribute to a team that scores goals and wins matches with a personal target of 12-15 goals in the league. It's that sort of performance from players who are not your top goal scorers (for us Torres) that makes a player like Keane worth the sort of money we paid for him.

By the way does anyone have any information (or even rumours) on how the ~£20m deal is structured.

[RedReet]

As DWW says, the end of the season is the time to judge. £20m may seem steep but compared to over £30m for Berbatov, then it’s more than fair.

[captain-caveman]

In todays market, he is worth £20m

he was bought as a second striker to backup Torres. I think he's done a good job so far.

He's a very clever player and is very good at making space for himself and others.
I've noticed many times when he's calling for the ball when he's in space but its passed to him too late if at all.

[Kenneth]

On evidence to date, the biggest waste of money spent by LFC ever.

[Shanks]

is keane worth 20 million?

In todays transfer market and the fact we are LFC is the reason we paid that.

Based on what we COULD have got for 20 mill then No...







Anyone care to enlighten me to who/what we could have got for 20 mill?

[Dhav]

On evidence to date, the biggest waste of money spent by LFC ever.

I agree. I was against his signing from the start for a number of reasons. The cornerstone of our (rather modest) success last season was the partnership between Torres and Gerrard playing behind him in the 4-2-3-1. Keane is a second striker so to me it made no sense to bring him in and play him in his best position behind Torres and break-up a tried and tested partnership. That would also open the can of worms of where to play Gerrard, and the only option would probably be on the right - a role where Kuyt has done well IMO.

Of course the other option would have been to revert to 4-4-2 and pair Keane and Torres up front, but the problem with that is it doesn't get the best out of Torres who IMO plays much better up front by himself with someone behind him.

Then you factor in the fee

I think the money would have been far better spent on a creative player for the left or the right, a Joe Cole-type who could carry the ball. That would have made the difference, not Robbie Keane.

Putting all this aside, his performances have not been up to scratch and he is in my eyes a hindrance to the team at the moment. It would take a massive turn-around for him to be a positive influence and be construed as a successful signing.

[barnes10]

I agree. I was against his signing from the start for a number of reasons. The cornerstone of our (rather modest) success last season was the partnership between Torres and Gerrard playing behind him in the 4-2-3-1. Keane is a second striker so to me it made no sense to bring him in and play him in his best position behind Torres and break-up a tried and tested partnership. That would also open the can of worms of where to play Gerrard, and the only option would probably be on the right - a role where Kuyt has done well IMO.

Of course the other option would have been to revert to 4-4-2 and pair Keane and Torres up front, but the problem with that is it doesn't get the best out of Torres who IMO plays much better up front by himself with someone behind him.

Then you factor in the fee

I think the money would have been far better spent on a creative player for the left or the right, a Joe Cole-type who could carry the ball. That would have made the difference, not Robbie Keane.

Putting all this aside, his performances have not been up to scratch and he is in my eyes a hindrance to the team at the moment. It would take a massive turn-around for him to be a positive influence and be construed as a successful signing.

I had exactly the opposite view in the summer.

RK a tried and trusted premiership forward who can and has played well on the wings, leading the line and as the in the hole striker. a player who scores a good load of goals both internationally and in the prem.

i thought the fee was too high - about 4 or 5 mill too much, but i thought he was a fantastic signing as a player to complement what we have.

at 9 mill to upgrade crouch to robbie keane i thought that was worth it given that it would mean we would not switch between proper attacking football with torres (and keane) and hoofball with crouch.

so he's not worth 20 mill, and up to now, he's not worthy of a starting place. he's only getting it because of the 'he's settling in' thing. as crouch did.

lets hope keane plays better for us than he ever had previously just like crouch. if playing at lfc brings robbie's game on as much as it did crouch's then he'll definitely be worth the 20 mill. even if we only get 5 seasons out of him.

[Sarb]

No and No