“Please God, he’ll still be here in February. Robbie’s here. He is the captain and very important to us, unless someone comes up with £50m or something for him.” – Harry Rednapp, January 8th 2010.
It’s no wonder that Harry has a reputation for being a bit shady. When he first came to Spurs I was really impressed by how upfront he was, until I realised that none of his soundbites were worth the breath which they floated towards us on.
Seriously, how can you claim that it would take £50m for you to sell one of your players and then three weeks later, let him go out on loan for nothing? Still, at least it will keep everyone on their toes. No one can be assured of their place in the squad, whatever the manager says to the contrary.
Though he wasn’t entirely honest about things, Redknapp may have made the right decision in letting Keane move on. There was a danger of his confidence and form dropping even lower, but Keane now has a chance to rebuild both at Celtic, where he will surely find things easier. In Gudjohnsen we have a like for like replacement, even if the jury is out on whether the Icelandic striker is still up to the rigours of the Premier League.
We all remember talk of how Keane would love to play for Celtic one day, long before we heard about Liverpool being his other boyhood team. With finances tight in Scottish football, it will be interesting to see whether Celtic will be able to come up with a fee to purchase Keane in the summer.
Redknapp is publicly stating that Keane still has a future at Spurs, but we all know that we would have sold him now if anyone had made an appropriate bid. The same is true of Alan Hutton, who joined Sunderland on loan.
There were some raised eyebrows as we yesterday allowed both Hutton and Naughton to go on loan deals. Obviously Redknapp feels that Kaboul can play at right back. I’ve never seen him in the position, but he likes to get forward, so I could imagine he’d be useful there and Porstmouth fans have stated that he plays the role well.
I’m glad that Naughton is going to add to his experience, though slightly perplexed as to why he hasn’t been given more opportunities at Spurs. Here’s hoping that we’re able to recall him should either Corluka or Kaboul pick up injuries.
Pavlyuchenko has been granted an unexpected stay of execution. He’ll surely get more games now that Keane has gone and will be able to make no excuses should he not take them. He’s probably still itching for a move back to Russia, but by playing football for Spurs and scoring goals, he can help prove that he’s worth the money that we want for him.
With three players departing I was half expecting us to bring someone in, but nothing materialised. It was confirmed that we’d made an offer for Scott Loach, but unsurprisingly Watford turned down our ‘try now, buy later’ deal, which would see us take him on loan with the option of buying him in the summer for £2m.
The one player that I would have really liked to have seen us go for is Victor Moses, especially with Keane departing. At just £2.5m you couldn’t go that wrong on a young player with a lot of potential. As well as a striker, I’ve seen Moses operate on the flanks, so he’s adaptable and could have been useful for us. I think that Wigan have got themselves a bargain and within a season or so, all the clubs who failed to take a punt on Moses now, will be offering them a healthy profit on their investment.
Talking about making a profit on an investment, I’ve just had a tenner on Keane to be first goalscorer tonight against Kilmarnock. If he’s a success up there, he’ll be looked upon as a legend, which is what he could have been for us, had he not joined Liverpool.
Things never worked out on his return, but I for one wish Robbie Keane all the best in Scotland and hope that he can see out his playing days as a hero to the Celtic fans.
guys,
its nice and all to have robbie for 5 months – but listen, we can’t afford his wages – not to mention the huge transfer fee EPL teams can afford to pay.
he won’t find things very easy in scotland. i remember flo coming up for £12 m acting the large fella and flopped. robbie will be kicked up and down the park, will have to unravel mowbrys incompetence and fit into a team that now has 5 strikers???
you’ll be getting him back and we wish him well and in fairness – you are due a CL spot, and I’d rather meet ye in the CL than the usual suspects – cos you do have a bit of class about you. but, Skip mcDonald is leaving with a goal every 2 games ratio so robbie is going to have to match that. hopefully we’ll both make it to the CL.
oh – and watch carefully how he is treated by opposing fans – not just the hun hoardes, but most fans – just because he captains a certain country.
Levy stuck to his guns. We didn’t actually sell anyone, so we couldn’t buy anyone. Besides, Moses would have cost more if we went in for him – with higher wages. But I agree that the wing ability is what interests me the most. Potential cover for Lennon should he be missing (like right now!) and an option up front – or BOTH Lennon and Moses on wings if need be. We did buy Kaboul, but I believe that that is down to some management of unpaid instalments that Pompey owe to us. As for Keane – good move for him. Perhaps he rekindles form and comes back, or maybe not come back, or doesn’t rekindle form and stinks out Celtic Park as oppossed to the Lane. Whatever happens I think it is better this way.
HAPPIEST I’VE BEEN SINCE WE SOLD HIM TO LIVERPOOL – PLEASE GOD, THIS TIME WE DON’T BRING HIM BACK!!!
Why are Spurs always expected to dip into the transfer market every window & morons always groan when they dont spend heavily. Quite frankly I am delighted the so called world class Keane has been loaned out, would have preferred that we sold him instead. Gudjohnsen is a far superior player to Keane skills wise & he’s a winner boh in the UK & Spain. As for Kaboul, he should never have been sold in the first place, sure he made a few mistakes but the entire Spurs defence has been making mistakes for years and the young man was partnered with three different centre halves in the short space of time he had with the club previously. I for one welcome him back. Do not want Keane to ever return to WHL, he made his name on the back of Berbatov at the expense of Defoe’s injury & was found out when he went to Liverpool,incidently his boyhood dream team rather like Celtic are, sounde familiar. L’pool couldnt wait to get shot of him & we should do the same period.
Thanks danboo.
Here’s I and many Spurs fans hoping Celtic overtake the huns for top spot. Whatever some fans say, Keane is still a top player and will light up the SPL. Good luck Celtic and good luck Keano!
So basically we have swapped Keane for Gudjohonson for half a season. Can’t see the problem with that. When Eidur was at Chelski any Spurs fan would have bitten the cock off his shirt to sign the blonde viking. Is he currently better than Keane? Who knows but it wasn’t working the way it was so why not mix it up a little? Looking forward to seeing what Gudjohonson has to offer. As a more skilful player with the ball at his feet, who knows, he may replace Crouch in the starting line-up?