SOCCER: A frustrated Terry Venables has expressed his bitter disappointment at striker Robbie Keane's lack of patience and his decision to walk out on Leeds for Tottenham.
Ahead of today's closure of the transfer window, Keane is poised to sign a five-year deal with the London club worth an estimated £25,000 per week after Leeds yesterday agreed to let the 22-year-old go for a cut-price £7million.
Only last weekend, Keane expressed his annoyance at starting this season on the bench, despite the summer arrival of new boss Terry Venables.
Keane had been hoping that following his superb performances for the Republic of Ireland during the World Cup he would be given the nod by Venables for a place in the starting line-up.
But despite the change of faces at Elland Road, the story remained the same for Keane as he was subjected to bench duties for the majority of the second half of last season under former manager David O'Leary.
Although scoring as a substitute in the 3-0 opening day win at home to Manchester City, Keane could not see his situation improving and so publicly voiced his concerns.
Leeds had been holding out for the £9million fee they agreed with Sunderland in the summer, only for Keane to refuse to even travel to the north east for talks.
But Tottenham boss Glenn Hoddle has won the day, with the figure representing a £6million loss on Keane who joined Leeds for £13million from Inter Milan in December 2000, with instalments still owed to the Italian side for the forward.
There is no doubt Venables feels let down by Keane as he said: "He did ask to go. He stated that last week, even though I thought he was settled, but obviously he was not.
"As I said the week before, I thought we would be going for the season with all the players we had, but it wasn't to be.
"I realise lots of players want many things and sometimes it's more difficult to stop some things."
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)