`Old-timers' singing new kid's praises

Saturday afternoon down the tunnel and one name is on everybody's lips. Lee Carsley, Gary Breen and Gareth Farrelly, old-timers the lot of them at this stage, are all cornered to sing his praises and, dutifully, they sing like birds. Robbie Keane, they all agree, is going places . . . and fast.

"He does things," says Breen, "that you just don't expect, which can be frustrating for players around him, but like Darren Huckerby at Coventry, he's the sort of player you still have to give the ball to because you know he can win matches for you."

Like Breen a few years ago, Keane has made it onto the international stage before playing in the top flight in England which, the defender admits, can present some problems. However, the teenager, he reckons, is coping well and "when you see how level-headed he is, it's difficult to imagine him having any real problems coming to terms with it all."

Asked about his new team-mate's progress, Carsley finds himself being treated like one of the elders in a side he has scarcely had time to settle into himself. But, he admits the arrival of so many new players is a clear indication that the team is heading in the right direction.

"Even when I came in first, the average age of the team would have been over 30, today it was something like 23, which has got to be a good sign for the future," he said. "Robbie's done well this week, but so have a lot of the other younger players, even lads who came straight in from the under-18s after their game, they've looked at home in training and there's a very good spirit around the squad."

Carsley, like one or two others in Saturday's team, is currently the subject of transfer speculation, with Everton manager Howard Kendall declaring his interest in signing him late last week.

The player, though, is lukewarm about the idea of a move just now, remarking: "I was captain at Derby for the last few weeks of the season and I really enjoyed that, so personally I wouldn't be particularly looking to move, but it's up to the manager and the club to decide what they want to do." If the move did go through, Carsley would be linking up with his midfield partner from this game, Gareth Farrelly, at Goodison Park, a prospect that might well appeal to Mick McCarthy. On Saturday, Farrelly was a little more subdued than in recent games but felt overall that the week had been a useful exercise for all concerned, especially the new man. Keane himself was reluctant to go into his own views on the events of the afternoon. So reluctant, in fact, that, clutching his man of the match award, his only reply to a collection of requests for a chat was "not today lads, I'm in a hurry". But what else would you expect from a young man who going places . . . and fast.