Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 campaign gives Robbie Keane a sense of release after being pushed into shadows at Tottenham
The temperature is a stifling 36 degrees and the four-hour time difference remains disorientating. The pressure on the Republic of Ireland is just as intense. Giovanni Trapattoni’s team cannot countenance anything other than victory here tomorrow evening when their Euro 2012 campaign gets underway against the Group B minnows Armenia.
Yet for the captain, Robbie Keane, there is only liberation. To say that the 30-year-old has endured a difficult start to the season is a little like suggesting there was mild disappointment when Ireland’s World Cup qualifying hopes were pushed off course by Thierry Henry in Paris last November.
Keane has absorbed a series of body blows at club level with Tottenham Hotspur since that notorious play-off defeat to France, from losing his place in Harry Redknapp’s starting line-up to feeling that, in his own words, he had lost his “hunger” for the game by the turn of the year.
A four-month loan move to Celtic on the final day of the winter transfer window rekindled that. “Going to Celtic was the best thing that could have happened to me,” Keane said last month. “It got me back into the swing of things again, it got my hunger back for football.”
But back at Tottenham, despite an encouraging pre-season, his stock has never seemed lower. Keane was offered to other clubs including West Ham United, Everton, Newcastle United and Aston Villa during the transfer window, often as the proposed makeweight in deals, and if he was not earning as much as £68,000 a week, he might have been off.
The past week or so has brought bitter frustration. Redknapp preferred Jermain Defoe to him last Wednesday, in the vital Champions League play-off second-leg against Young Boys, even though the manager had said that Defoe needed a groin operation, was not fully fit and could last no longer than an hour. On Saturday, Keane remained on the bench in the shock home defeat by Wigan Athletic. Redknapp introduced Giovani dos Santos ahead of him. Keane has made two substitutes’ appearances so far for Tottenham, totalling 46 minutes.
The contrast to his international status is stark. Keane won his 100th cap last month against Argentina, becoming only the fourth Irishman to the landmark, while his 43 goals are a record by some distance. Niall Quinn is second on the all-time Ireland scoring chart with 21. Keane thrives on being the main man in Trapattoni’s squad, the leader and creative inspiration. When he pulls on his country’s jersey at the Republican Stadium, he will feel pride but also a sense of release.
“I think all the clubs are probably glad that the transfer window has closed and now everyone will concentrate on playing football,” Keane says. “At least there won’t be any more speculation for a few months. Obviously every player wants to play in every game and I am certainly looking forward to the Armenia match and next Tuesday’s tie against Andorra in Dublin.”
It is a curiosity that Keane lost his place in Redknapp’s team immediately after the play-off against France. Having started in all 12 of Tottenham’s Premier League fixtures, he was dropped for the home game against Wigan Athletic on 22 November. Tottenham won 9-1. Thereafter, he made only three Premier League starts before his loan move to Celtic – against Wolves at home and Fulham away in December, and against Hull City at home in January. Tottenham did not score in any of them.
It has been reported that Keane’s role in organising the secret Christmas party for 16 members of the first-team squad, in defiance of Redknapp’s orders, damaged the striker’s prospects at the club. Keane led the players on a night out in Dublin on 8 December and, when the story emerged 10 days later, there was a backlash in the newspapers and a ticking off from Redknapp.
The bottom line, though, for Keane was that when Tottenham geared up after the halfway point of last season to push for a Champions League finish, which had for so long been their Holy Grail, and there was the implicit call for all hands to be turned on deck, Redknapp was quite content to sanction his loan switch to Glasgow.
Keane had only re-signed to Tottenham on the final day of the winter transfer window last year after a disastrous six months at Liverpool and Redknapp said that the force of his personality was needed to galvanise a quiet dressing room. Tottenham languished in 15th place when Keane arrived, two points off the bottom of the table. With him starting in all 14 of the club’s remaining Premier League games, they took 30 points to finish in eighth.
Redknapp has often praised Keane for his “first-class” attitude. “If everyone had an attitude like him, the game would be a better game and your job would be much easier,” Redknapp said. “When he’s not playing, he’s still in the dressing room, geeing everybody up and wishing everybody all the best. Robbie is important to me, an important player around the place.”
Those comments came on 25 January of this year. One week later, Keane was at Celtic.
Keane has refrained from going public on his frustrations at Tottenham, which has scored him points, although his remark about “getting the hunger back” at Celtic was insightful. Pressed on it, he promptly brought the shutters down. Keane has maintained, meanwhile, that he was “not going anywhere” during this summer’s transfer window.
The blows that he has taken would have floored a lesser character but Keane is determined to fight back at Tottenham and regain his starting place. He has never doubted his ability. More immediately, though, it is Ireland that offers him opportunity and possibility.
When the Armenia manager, Vardan Minasyan, was asked to assess the threats that Ireland would pose, he misinterpreted the question. “What, Keane is not playing?” he exclaimed.
“No, Robbie is playing but could you … “
“Well, if Keane does not play, Ireland have other strong players,” Minasyan continued.
“Please listen. Robbie Keane is playing.”
“Oh, OK,” Minasyan said. “Very good for you.”
Keane’s worth on the international stage is not in doubt.
Republic of IrelandTottenham HotspurDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk
