REPUBLIC OF IRELAND skipper Robbie Keane yesterday described his six-month spell at Liverpool, a club he supported throughout childhood, as “a difficult time”, but insisted he is now focused on the challenge of being back at Tottenham and helping the Londoners to top-flight safety during the months ahead.
“It was a difficult time for me at Liverpool, but there’s no point in dwelling on it,” he said a day after completing his return to the club where he had previously spent six seasons and become a major favourite amongst the fans.
Keane’s situation at Liverpool had reportedly sparked interest at Everton and Manchester City but the Dubliner insists once it became clear he was going to be leaving Anfield, there really wasn’t much of a choice to be made from his point of view. And manager Harry Redknapp confirmed yesterday Keane will captain Tottenham on the field while defender Ledley King will retain the club captaincy.
“Coming back to Spurs was an easy decision to make because this is my home. Firstly, in respect of the club itself but also my house is in the area and everything is set up for me to walk right back into. It would have been difficult for me to have gone anywhere else while a club I have such strong feelings for has this fight on its hands,” Keane said.
“It’s funny how football works sometimes,” he continued, “situations turn around very quickly, but I can assure fans I will be giving my all now to make sure this club stays in the Premier League. It’s been an up-and-down season for the club and there’s been a lot of change, including a change of manager, but now it’s up to us as players to start getting the team up the table. I am extremely excited about this new chapter in my career,” he concluded, “even though it doesn’t feel as if the previous chapter really ended.”
It wasn’t clear whether this last remark was intended to refer to his first stint at Spurs or his brief one at Liverpool but back on Merseyside Rafa Benitez was attempting to put the whole Keane affair behind him, insisting that the player, despite his best efforts, simply hadn’t fitted in as had been hoped and that the move, when it came about, was in the best interests of all concerned.
“Sometimes,” he said, “you have a good player like Robbie and they are not settled down or understanding with the other players, the system . . . a situation you cannot control. If you know it’s not working, you must find a solution to it now. I think that for the club and for him we had to do it right now. We had Tottenham asking, they were pushing, very interested because they are in a bad position and they think Keane can be a fantastic player for them. We could do it (now) because Tottenham was very, very interested.”
The Spaniard knows he has taken a considerable gamble in letting the Irishman go when he had nobody lined up to replace him. Should Fernando Torres get injured again and Liverpool’s title challenge fall by the wayside because of a lack of goals then the sale of Keane, when it did not appear to be in any way forced upon the manager, will be looked back upon both by the club’s supporters and, of course, by its owners, as a major error.
Still, he insisted yesterday the opportunity to recoup such a large percentage of the fee agreed for the striker last summer made the deal a good one both for the club and the 28-year-old.
“Robbie is a very good professional,” he said, “and he worked hard. “Before the game against Chelsea and after the game he was in the dressingroom – everything okay. We knew he can play too, he’s a very good player but we had to decide quickly and we decided to do it now because later it could have been worse for him and worse for us.”
