Robbie, Robbie, Robbie, where did it all go wrong? Celtic fans probably cannot believe Robbie Keane has signed for them and, frankly, I find it hard to believe as well. If it were not for the fact that it is only a loan move, Keane’s decision to join Celtic would rank as the worst career move by an Ireland player since Damien Duff thought it would be a good idea to sign for Newcastle United.
Harry Redknapp spoke of how the lure of Celtic will always be strong for Irish players and compared it to when Roy Keane moved to Parkhead but Robbie’s namesake was 34 , had won every major honour in England and was clearly just seeing out his career. Is that what Robbie is doing at the age of 29? Furthermore Celtic were a decent side back then. Granted they were dumped out of the European Cup by Artmedia Bratislava and Keane’s first game was a humiliating Scottish Cup defeat to Clyde but they went on to win the league by 17 points.
It appeared as though Celtic no longer hac the resources to attract big-name players from England but Dermot Desmond has clearly made an exception for the Ireland captain. But should he not be concerned that almost half a team’s worth of players have thought it’s a good career move to join Middlesbrough – a team ninth in the Championship – rather than stay put at Parkhead?
Granted, only Scott McDonald was the only one of that quintet who was a fixture in the Celtic XI – although Barry Robson and Stephen McManus were both well-established players at the club – and, okay, Keane was not getting a game at Spurs but, surely, he can do better than joining Celtic who are on their worst run since John Barnes got sacked almost a decade ago.
The word was that Redknapp had been unimpressed by Keane’s efforts since he rejoined from Spurs a year ago and could it be that his legs are beginning to go before he’s even hit 30? Unlikely perhaps but possible given he has been playing first-team football since the age of 17. Even so, Redknapp intended to hang on to him until the summer at least until Tottenham succeeded in bringing in Eidur Gudjohnssen on loan. There were plenty of Premier League clubs interested in Keane. He should have gone to any of them ahead of Celtic.
The emotional pull of a switch to Celtic is understandable. His status as a fans’ favourite at Spurs won’t have prepared him for the adulation he will receive in Scotland but what can he achieve during his time there? With the best will in the world and despite a rake of new signings, it’s hard to see them overturning the ten-point deficit between them and Rangers. If Celtic were still in Europe the move would make more sense but they are long since gone from both the Champions League and Europa League so he will go from playing – albeit not as often as he would like - in the top-ranked league in Europe to the 15th. And, with no league medal on the horizon, the most he can hope for silverware-wise is the Scottish Cup.
If Keane, as his detractors claim, only score goals against poor teams – and surely this was put to bed for once and for all by him netting against Italy and France in the World Cup qualifying games – then he should run riot in Scotland because the SPL is full of them. If Anthony Stokes – a player who can’t get into the Ireland squad most times – can net 13 times in 21 games for Hibernian, how many can Keane get for Celtic in their 16 remaining matches in the SPL?
He will lift the team and raise the spirits of fans who were already becoming disillusioned with Tony Mowbray. Not surprisingly, he has been installed as favourite to score the first goal in Celtic’s game against Kilmarnock at 11/4. I’m putting €20 on that and €30 on Celtic to win with a minus one handicap at 20/21.
