When Robbie Keane arrived in Liverpool in last summer he must have thought that all his birthdays and Christmases had come at once. His lifelong dream of joining the club he had supported as a boy had finally come to fruition, over a decade after he had turned down overtures from Anfield in favour of a move to a smaller club where opportunities of first team football would be more frequent.
It was a move that paid off for the then 15-year-old who went on to score 24 goals in 74 appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers. From Molyneux he went to Coventry, Milan, Leeds and North London before he made a cross-country journey to what he considered to be home. From an outsider's perspective, Keane's arrival at Anfield would not only fulfil his lifelong dream but also give another dimension to Liverpool's attack.
Little did anyone know that Keane was to become to Liverpool what Andriy Shevchenko was to Chelsea - an unwanted player signed by the club's hierarchy against the manager's wishes. Both players returned to the clubs from which they were signed; Shevchenko was sold back to AC Milan last summer, shortly after Keane arrived at Anfield. This week Keane was resigned by Spurs after only five goals in 19 appearances - an identical statistic to Andriy Voronin who was sent on loan to Hertha Berlin by Rafael Benitez at the start of the season.
The Daily Mirror's Brian Reade summed up the situation surrounding Keane best prior to the Irishman's departure in his weekly column where he openly criticised the club's hierarchy.
Last summer, Benitez fancied him, but not as much as he fancied Gareth Barry. Parry fancied Keane so badly he paid over the odds, leaving Benitez without sufficient cash for Barry, and fuming.
Almost from day one Keane has felt unwanted, a feeling confirmed by regular substitutions, exclusion from the team and eventually, in a home derby, from the bench. And this week he’s all but been encouraged to leave.
So instead of watching a proven striker winning games, the fans stare dumbfounded at a £20million pawn in a long-running power struggle. Nothing exposes the divisions at the heart of the club more.
The player was used as a pawn in a power struggle between Benitez, chief executive Rick Parry and co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks however it appears that Parry sanctioned the deal, as Reade rightly pointed out. Reade also stated that Benitez seems to be so hellbent on winning personal battles with the club hierarchy that he was 'alienating everyone around him'. This seems to be the problem at the forefront of the manager's negotiations over a new contract. He wants to run everything from the shop floor. Whilst the transfer issue is a difficult area to clarify, Benitez's demand of full control of the youth set up at Liverpool will not sit right with the likes of John Owens and Hugh McAuley who have been at the forefront of it since the early 1990s when Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman broke through the ranks.
Looking at this with hindsight, for all the times Robbie Keane complained to referees and lacked the qualities of the player that achieved cult hero status at Tottenham Hotspur it appears that his frustrations were boiling over rather than him acting like a spoilt brat. Genuine sympathy goes out to the player because as far as mercenaries go, Robbie Keane wasn't one of them when he signed for Liverpool. Now he is back to square one and having to rebuild his career at Spurs. It's highly demoralising as a supporter to know that a player with the love and passion for a club as Keane has, or had, for Liverpool has been toyed with all for the sake of a petty dispute between a manager and the boardroom.
Robbie Keane is now on the back foot. He has lost six months of his footballing career and at 28 his time is precious. No doubt he will see out his career at White Hart Lane and despite him being at the club for a relatively short time, his name will be etched into fans' folklore as the player who suffered most in this ongoing power struggle between Gillett, Hicks, Parry and Benitez.
All that there is left is to wish Robbie the best, hope he can rebuild his career and say sorry for this whole debacle. It's a pity that the men at the helm of this mess won't be the ones apologising.
Last summer, Benitez fancied him, but not as much as he fancied Gareth Barry. Parry fancied Keane so badly he paid over the odds, leaving Benitez without sufficient cash for Barry, and fuming.
Almost from day one Keane has felt unwanted, a feeling confirmed by regular substitutions, exclusion from the team and eventually, in a home derby, from the bench. And this week he’s all but been encouraged to leave.
So instead of watching a proven striker winning games, the fans stare dumbfounded at a £20million pawn in a long-running power struggle. Nothing exposes the divisions at the heart of the club more.
The player was used as a pawn in a power struggle between Benitez, chief executive Rick Parry and co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks however it appears that Parry sanctioned the deal, as Reade rightly pointed out. Reade also stated that Benitez seems to be so hellbent on winning personal battles with the club hierarchy that he was 'alienating everyone around him'. This seems to be the problem at the forefront of the manager's negotiations over a new contract. He wants to run everything from the shop floor. Whilst the transfer issue is a difficult area to clarify, Benitez's demand of full control of the youth set up at Liverpool will not sit right with the likes of John Owens and Hugh McAuley who have been at the forefront of it since the early 1990s when Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman broke through the ranks.
Looking at this with hindsight, for all the times Robbie Keane complained to referees and lacked the qualities of the player that achieved cult hero status at Tottenham Hotspur it appears that his frustrations were boiling over rather than him acting like a spoilt brat. Genuine sympathy goes out to the player because as far as mercenaries go, Robbie Keane wasn't one of them when he signed for Liverpool. Now he is back to square one and having to rebuild his career at Spurs. It's highly demoralising as a supporter to know that a player with the love and passion for a club as Keane has, or had, for Liverpool has been toyed with all for the sake of a petty dispute between a manager and the boardroom.
Robbie Keane is now on the back foot. He has lost six months of his footballing career and at 28 his time is precious. No doubt he will see out his career at White Hart Lane and despite him being at the club for a relatively short time, his name will be etched into fans' folklore as the player who suffered most in this ongoing power struggle between Gillett, Hicks, Parry and Benitez.
All that there is left is to wish Robbie the best, hope he can rebuild his career and say sorry for this whole debacle. It's a pity that the men at the helm of this mess won't be the ones apologising.
