Keane signing is 'icing on the cake'

SOCCER ROBBIE KEANE RETURNS TO TOTTENHAM:ROBBIE KEANE may take some time to reveal his true feelings about the manner in which he left Liverpool just six months after going there, but Harry Redknapp last night hailed the return of the Irish striker to Tottenham Hotspur as the final piece in the club's Premier League survival plan.

“He’s not just a good player, he is a great character,” said the Spurs boss after a busy day’s work ended with the 28-year-old signing a four-year deal for an initial fee of almost €13 million. “He’s a lad who wants to win every time he pulls on the jersey and goes out on the pitch and you need players like that around the place.

“His enthusiasm for the game and his attitude in the dressingroom is terrific,” he continued. “He’ll have a hugely positive impact on us. He’ll bring so much to us. He’s full of energy and every time he pulls on the shirt he gives his all.”

Even though Keane left Liverpool, manager Rafael Benitez didn’t feel the need to go into the transfer market to replace him.

Although the fee agreed for Keane essentially involves the cancellation of the outstanding amount owed for him by Liverpool, it still brings Redknapp’s spending since taking over at the club to some €50 million, with a sizeable chunk spent on players who had previously had spells in north London.

“The chairman (Daniel Levy) has done really well,” said Redknapp. “We’ve brought three players back (Keane plus Pascal Chimbonda and Jermain Defoe); all good players who I don’t think the chairman wanted to lose in the first place and they’re terrific signings for the club. Robbie coming here now, though, is the icing on the cake. He is a fantastic player.

“Jermain Defoe is going to be out for a while now but we’ve still got a strong line-up of strikers and Robbie will add to that strength. We’ve got a squad that can do the job for sure. We’ve got a good squad of players. I think we’ll be all right now.”

It was confirmed yesterday that Defoe will undergo an operation today after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot and is expected to be out for 10 weeks.

Keane looked increasingly peripheral to Benitez’s plans at Liverpool. When pressed, the Spaniard had repeatedly expressed confidence in the Dubliner. But his decision to omit Keane from his squad for key games, followed by his observation on Friday that it had been the club, rather than he, who had paid €22 million for the player could hardly be taken as backing up the public endorsements.

Keane had certainly taken some time to find anything approaching his best form for Liverpool and he was not helped by the fact that, having arrived amid such fanfare on Merseyside, it took him 11 games to score his first goal for his new club.

He wasn’t helped, though, by the regularity with which Benitez played him out of position, out wide on the flanks. And the speed with which the Spaniard then appeared to give up on him added considerably to the sense that Keane had become something of a pawn in the internal politics of the club he had supported as a boy.

Having completed a medical and agreed the terms of his return to White Hart Lane last night, the 28-year-old issued a statement in which he wrote off his six months away from the place as a misadventure and expressed the hope that supporters with whom he had been hugely popular up until last August would accept him back.

“It was a difficult decision to make to leave Tottenham in the summer,” he said. “It proved not to be the right move for me. I know some Spurs fans will feel I let them down by leaving, but I can assure them I shall be giving my all for this club. This club has terrific fans and I want to repay them for all their support. We’ve got to get on and fight our way up that league table.”

He will get a pretty good idea of the fans’ views when he takes the field for the north London derby against Arsenal but it would be surprising if their attitude is much different from the one expressed by Levy last night. “We never wanted Robbie to leave in the summer,” he said. “We acknowledged the six years dedicated service he gave this club and reluctantly let him go. I am delighted that he has chosen to return to us. We can all recall the passion and fight he displayed during his previous seasons with us. I know he is determined to give us his full commitment.”

Intriguingly, Keane may now return to Anfield on the season’s final day for a league game upon which Spurs’ league survival and Liverpool’s pursuit of a first league title in 19 years could potentially hinge.