Keane thinking hard before making move

Emmet Maloneon how the striker has much to ponder as he considers what could be his last big money transfer

REPORTS THAT Robbie Keane was on his way to St Andrew’s yesterday turned out, at the very least, to be premature and while, as it inevitably did with the death of Mark Twain, the news might eventually come to pass, it seems the 30-year-old striker is taking his time to weigh up what is probably the last big move in a career that has included more than its fair share of them.

Birmingham City and Tottenham Hotspur officials were reported still to be talking about the finances of a possible deal yesterday, with the London club having apparently sought a fee of around €7.15 million, plus half that amount again in performance -related bonuses. City would like to pay a little less than the requested flat fee without any add -ons, but are aware that West Ham are also interested in Keane.

The midlands club’s officials, however, seem less confident now of securing an agreement with the Dubliner and the sense around St Andrews is Keane is anxious to assess all of his options before deciding on his destination.

Nevertheless, they remain hopeful he will choose them over the alternatives, even if first team coach Peter Grant, who worked with Keane early last year during the striker’s loan spell with Celtic, had to dampen the growing media expectation yesterday.

“Alex (McLeish) has inquired about him; that is open knowledge, as he has done so about a lot of players,” he said. “The manager would love a talent like Robbie Keane to come to Birmingham but there are a lot of clubs looking at him. I think there are a lot of bridges to be crossed yet. We are definitely in the mix and there is definite interest but it is a million miles short of getting to the having medicals stage.”

Keane has indeed been generating a fair bit of interest over the past few weeks and it’s not hard to imagine why, with Birmingham, for instance, having scored just 20 league goals so far this season; with seven coming from midfielder Craig Gardner and defender Liam Ridgewell. Regular strikers Nikola Zigic and Cameron Jerome have managed just five between them.

The rest of the clubs languishing near the foot of the table have obviously found goals tough to come by too. Having generally scored comfortably more than a goal every three games and consistently made double figures in the English top flight from his arrival at Tottenham until last year when he was halfway there prior to moving to Celtic in January, it’s no surprise Keane is being linked with just about all of them right now.

It might be argued he was poorly treated during his short time at Liverpool but that spell did effectively kill off any hope he might have had of a move to a “bigger” club than Spurs as well as severely undermining his position at White Hart Lane itself.

Now the question is the extent to which Spurs’ asking price combined with his own demands might limit his options.

Proven top-level goalscorers aren’t easy to come by and scarcity, of course, makes for high prices. Spurs, having spent a great deal of money since the arrival of Harry Redknapp, are intent on doing rather better than simply freeing up his wages to put towards the cost of employing David Beckham or whoever else catches the manager’s eye in the coming month.

They are, in fact, now aiming to recoup the fee – around €8.3 million – they paid Leeds eight years ago.

That now looks a tidy piece of business for in the years that followed he was three times the club’s player of the year and four times their top scorer (twice jointly).

But, as Spurs push on in the hope of becoming established as genuine contenders for the title, Redknapp clearly feel he is not up to the required standard now and he is being edged to the door midway through a season in which he has seen precious little first team action and has scored no Premier League goals at all.

In the circumstances, getting even close to €10 million for him would be a decent day’s work too, particularly if Keane, as he is said to be, is determined to come out the other side of any deal on something very similar to the €75,000 or so he is paid each week by the Londoners.

Certainly the figures involved are reported to have alarmed West Ham’s money men when they totted them up a week or so ago, with the Upton Park outfit opting to go away and think again about a move they reckoned could cost them over €20 million over three and a half years.

Clearly it suits both Keane and his current employers to part company at this stage but the danger if there isn’t a bit of a rethink on their part too is the Dubliner might well end up going to a club based on the depth of its pockets rather than it being the best one for him.

The fact is neither party actually needs the money all that badly and the player could really do without another unfortunate club move at this late stage of the game.