IN A show of unity the sort of which is rarely in seen in public between managers and agents, Harry Redknapp, Martin O’Neill and Per A Flod queued up yesterday to put an end to speculation linking Robbie Keane with a move to Villa Park as part of a swap deal involving John Carew.
The Tottenham boss suggested that it would take just a little bit more than the Norwegian striker to prise the Republic of Ireland captain away from White Hart Lane while O’Neill insisted there nothing to all the talk. Finally, Flod weighed in with what must have been a painful admission that Carew is going nowhere.
“Please God, he’ll still be here in February,” said Redknapp of Keane at what turned out to be a pre-postponement press conference. “He is the captain, he’s here, he’s done a great job for us and is very important to us.
“There’s real competition between him, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch but unless someone comes up with £50 million (€55.6m) or something for him I can’t see any way he won’t be here.
“He’s part of the plans and I haven’t spoken to anyone about him leaving or wanting to leave. I never made any enquiries at Aston Villa, if I did I would have spoken to Martin O’Neill who is a very good friend.”
O’Neill seemed to concur, observing that: “I see us linked with players and some of our players are being linked with other clubs but at this minute I have nothing to report.
“There is no definite movement in either direction. Maybe like most Premier League managers, I’d probably like to keep it that way. Robbie Keane? There is absolutely nothing in it.”
Flod then remarked that “Carew is playing well so why would he leave Aston Villa,” which is just the sort of talk, one would have suspected, that they beat out you in agent’s school.
On the face of it Redknapp’s comments would appear to be positive from the point of view of Keane, who has never given any indication that he wanted to move on. It means, however, that the striker will have to continue battling to get into the Spurs team at a time when the manager appears to have a preference for the partnership of Crouch and Defoe.
Also staying put, it seems, is Stephen Hunt who was reported to be the subject of growing interest from Mick McCarthy’s Wolves. The Republic of Ireland winger only moved to Hull City from Reading during the summer and hadn’t been expected to feature in mid-season window merry-go-round but Phil Brown is apparently under orders to reduce his wage bill by around €10 million which leaves him with a few difficult choices to make.
Kevin Kilbane has also been linked with a loan move to Molineux but Brown is adamant that Hunt, who has done well for City over the first half of the season, will be staying put.
“Stephen, as far as I and the chairman are concerned, will be going nowhere,” he said. “I’ve had the lad in and asked him where he wants to be. His heart is firmly at Hull City and I’d like to keep it that way.”
In the lower divisions, former Ireland manager Steve Staunton, has brought in two players from the League of Ireland in effort to bolster his Darlington side’s hopes of achieving League Two survival.
Gary Dempsey and Tadhg Purcell, who played for St Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers respectively last season, have signed for Staunton whose side are 10 points adrift at the foot of the table. Dempsey (28) is a midfielder who has previously had spells at Aberdeen and Dunfermline while Purcell is a 24 year-old striker who left Tallaght by mutual consent back in September.
Kevin Thornton, meanwhile, has signed for Northampton Town from Nuneaton on a short-term contract while Peter Murphy, the long-serving Carlisle United defender, has become a target for a number of other clubs, including Shrewsbury Town.
