The press is full of speculation today that Spurs are planning a swap deal that will see Robbie Keane join Aston Villa and John Carew come to White Hart Lane.
According to most reports (which probably means that someone thought it up and then everyone else copied them), the deal would involve Villa paying us an additional £5m.
Some people have stated that this figure is a little high considering that Keane is 29 years old, but don’t forget that Carew himself is now 30. What would Carew be worth on the open market? £4-5m at most I suspect, though probably less. So the whole deal would amount to Keane being valued somewhere between £8m-10m, which seems about right considering that he cost us £12m a year ago.
The number of people who’d like Spurs to cash in on Keane now, rather than wait until the end of the season is growing, but aside from the issue of whether we want to dump our captain, is Carew a player that we really want or particularly need at the club?
He’d certainly provide able cover and competition for Crouch. Whilst though it is easy to imagine him partnering Defoe, he’s not a player that could be played alongside Crouch. With Pavlyuchenko possibly leaving and also not that suited to playing alongside Crouch or Carew should he stay, we’d probably have to purchase another forward to provide cover for Defoe.
Would we really get rid of both Pavlyuchenko and Keane during the middle of the season, to bring in Carew and possibly one other striker? It seems unlikely to me and too much of a gamble given our position in the league.
If the deal were to happen then I’d imagine it would be late in the window, if we’ve already sold Pavlyuchenko. Harry has said that he doesn’t mind having only three strikers in the squad if Pav is sold in January, but that’s because he’s quite happy playing any out of Defoe, Keane and Crouch alongside each other. Take away Keane and add Carew, and you are left with only two possible forward options. What do we do if Defoe isn’t fit to play alongside either Crouch or Carew?
I suppose there is the option of a five man midfield, with Modric, Kranjcar and Lennon providing support for a lone striker, but again, I’m not sure if we should be making such drastic changes in mid-season.
So I’d be surprised if this deal comes off. My guess is that Keane won’t leave in January, but he’ll be ditched in the summer if his form hasn’t improved.
As for Carew, I quite like him, but if we’re after another big lump, then I favour Sunderland’s Kenwyne Jones. He has the pace and athleticism that Crouch lacks and would offer more of an alternative than Carew.
This is rubbish – why bother????
In fact, don’t answer. The response will most likely be just as pointless and boring.
it is rubbish….why would villa want a loser (Liverpool) like Keane?
Carew brings us nothing we don’t already have. I would hate to see that as it also makes Villa better. Sell Pav and buy Jones (fast, powerful and great in the air), makes way more sense for now and the future. Keane’s fate will be determined in the summer. Right now he’s a super sub who will score goals. Would love to see him net a brace off the bench against Liverpool. COYS
sell keane 10m and pav 10m, buy beckford 2.5m and c.cole 12m and we have 2 better options whilst making a profit. simples
Ingen! Which is ‘No!’ translated (apparently) into Norwegian so that Carew can clearly understand that this deal shouldn’t happen.
peterballb…how would having keane make Villa better?!?! when clearly he makes us look that bit poorer whenever he plays. Having watched every spurs game this season it’s pretty clear that having robbie keane in your team is only to your detriment. Give him to them, that deal seems like daylight robbery to me. As for Pav, give him to them too and make sure they have to play them!
this must be some sort of joke!
carew and £5million for keane?? keane showed at liverpool even at the age of 29 that he is no longer any sort of goal threat. john carew is a top class striker who terrorises defences but simply takes time to get to full fitness due to the fact he hardly trains.
with any luck this is just a nonsense story plucked from nowhere by the newspapers.
ingen means nobody. Carew is a good player, but we certainly don’t need him at the lane. He’ll probably never read this, but in case he does.. John, min kjære landsmann, du har det nok mye bedre i villa enn du noensinne vil få det i spurs!
Ha ha. These online translators are rubbish! Are you Norwegian? I didn’t expect to blog with a Norwegian Spurs fan! I did not mean to make a Freudian slip with Carew and ‘nobody’….! Hearing that Carew hardly trains is enough to put Harry right off. We would sign him so that he can hardly train with King and Woodgate – perhaps never train…
Perhaps Ledley wants some company with him in the swimming pool.
obviously not going to happen
Doubt we’d be interested in keane in the first place (he’s been poor since he’s moved to Liverpool) and we wouldn’t sell Carew especially since the fans love him.
Also, Spurs make no sense if they do buy him as they’ve already got Crouch and Pavlyuchenko.
More likely a player like Chamakh moving to Spurs and I’d want a better striker than Keane as a villa fan if we are to get a striker or at least a good deal like beckford
Let’s face it Keane is now over-the-hill. Yes he was great before he joined Liverpool, but that has gone now. Why Villa would want to sign him is beyond me. Dunne is Irish – perhaps he is a mate and recommended him. Carew has scored some good goals, and when fit and on form looked good – but he is 30. The point of trying to qualify for Champs league is that you also have a good squad to actually compete in it a year later. Spurs should look at players approaching their prime.
Kenwyne Jones…pace and athleticism….hhmmm…you mean fast and clumsy….always looks like he is about to fall over. Darren Beckford from Leeds for a bargain 2m….great cover for Defoe. We don’t need another ‘big man’ , we need a poacher ,just like Lineker,ole solkjer or van nist’roy. Defoes finishing has improved grealy but he is still very static at times,waiting for the ball to come to him, especially when we are not leading. I remember Lineker used to say that his mantra was ‘attack the space’, something Defoe does not do.If Defoe had more movement he would have another 10 goals this season.
I don’t think Spurs need either of them and can’t see how Carew could get a game at White Hart Lane. Keane has not really recovered from going to Liverpool either on the pitch or in the eyes of the fans who thought he was disloyal. Gio is perfectly good cover for Defoe if Keane goes or as fourth striker if Pav goes.
Centre midfield is the weakest spot if Spurs are buying but I think perhaps they are more likely to be selling a benchwarmer or two.
I really cannot see how we at spurs would benefit from this transfer what is this musical chairs? No much better we let them keep theirs and we keep ours. We’re a right fickle bunch us spurs Robbie is our man ok so he went walkabout to liverfool he’s back now let’s move on. A player like Robbie brings much to the table passion, leadership, experience, and a crappy goal celebration. What better game for Robbie to show Rafa and the rest of the doubters, if he was to give it to Liverpool on Sunday all those detractors would be choking on pie of the humble variety, if he plays on Sunday you will see how much Robbie is still our man. Oh ye of little faith Harry has bought us out of the wilderness and still we cry for bread. For the first time in a long time we look like we can do the unthinkable and break into the top four ok when Jol was in charge we missed out on the last day but remember this at the time we weren’t in Europe and we had been knocked out of both domestic cups early doors and as much as I loved Martin Jol I really felt he could only have taken us so far this man we have in Harry can do job but we have to trust him he didn’t re sign Robbie on a whim come on get behind your team and let’s do those scousers. And you’ll never work sign on sign on. Lillywhitetillidie
‘Gio is perfectly good cover for Defoe’ ?????? Excuse me? Why do people rate Gio so highly? He is completely unproven and doesn’t even so signs that he will make it. Even when he went down a division on loan, he didn’t do enough to suggest we should play him.
i would love keane at the villa, he’s a proven goal scorer. good link up player, would work well with milner, downing, young and gabby.
don’t get me wrong, i’m a massive fan of carew and when he’s on song, he is unplayable (look at the villa – bolton game this season), the only problem is he puts these performances in once every ten games.
carew wouldnt start at spurs, who you kidding???
keane has been useless since joining liverpool?
pavlyuchenko, has he scored a goal yet?
crouch, only useful in the last 10 minutes of games when balls are thrown forward in hast!
carew is a lot more dangerous than that when fit!