| You can't help but feel that Robbie Keane's Anfield career was doomed
from the outset. Arriving at Liverpool from Spurs for an initial fee of
19.3 million pounds in the summer of 2008, Keane became the latest in a
long line of players - including Stan Collymore, Harry Kewell and Craig
Bellamy - to be labelled as the missing piece in Liverpool's jigsaw.
The player that the Reds needed to help turn those frustrating draws
into three valuable points. The player that would finally help Liverpool
end that long wait for a nineteenth league title.
However, like those who had been handed this seemingly poisoned chalice before him, things didn't quite work out that way.
Robbie's
short stint at Anfield was disappointing to say the least - both for
club and player, who was achieving a lifelong ambition by joining the
club he had supported as a boy. Arriving at Liverpool with a proven
Premier League and international pedigree, expectations were high. The
Irish striker was viewed by many as the perfect link-up man in an
exciting looking front trio also consisting of Steven Gerrard and
Fernando Torres. On paper it looked unstoppable. Unfortunately, as we
all know, football is not played on paper.
For whatever reason,
Keane never looked 100 per cent comfortable in a Reds' shirt. Rather
than providing the ideal foil for Gerrard and Torres, as had been widely
expected, all too often Keane found himself occupying similar positions
to the Liverpool skipper and as a result games had a tendency to pass
him by.
However, by the time Liverpool took on Everton in the
first Merseyside derby of the 2008/09 season, there were signs that
Keane was finally starting to settle. He set up both goals for Torres in
a 2-0 victory, providing Liverpool supporters with glimpses of the
vision and craft that had made him such a hero to Tottenham fans. His
first Liverpool goal arrived in the very next match (the main photo above shows Robbie celebrating the moment),
as Liverpool eased to a 3-1 victory against PSV Eindhoven in the
Champions League match. It was his eleventh game for the club.
Alas,
this was to be one of numerous false dawns for Keane. Still without a
goal in the league, the striker's confidence was clearly starting to
dwindle, yet the more he tried to break his duck, the more of a
peripheral figure he became in matches.
Of course, Keane's
already low self-esteem was not exactly helped by either an early-season
injury to Torres, which often left the Irishman playing as a lone
striker - a role ill-suited to a player who had spent his entire career
as a deeper lying forward playing off of the main target man - or the
fact that he found himself continually substituted by manager Rafa
Benitez. Keane would complete 90 minutes for Liverpool on just four
occasions.
He finally netted his first league goals against West
Bromwich Albion on 8 November, scoring twice in a 3-0 win. However,
still the floodgates refused to open as goals came in a trickle rather
than a barrage. It took another month before Robbie netted another
league goal - a great strike against Tottenham's arch rivals Arsenal in a
1-1 draw. He then followed that up with a brace in his next league
match against Bolton in another 3-0 win. However, if it appeared Keane
had finally settled at Anfield, he hadn't.
The Bolton strikes
would prove to be Keane's last Premier league goals for Liverpool. By
January, it had become clear that Benitez was losing patience with the
Irish international's inconsistent performances, while Keane was
evidently fed up with being continually substituted, and on occasion
only starting from the bench. The striker was left out of the Liverpool
squad altogether for crucial matches against Everton and Chelsea.
When
Spurs came back in for their former captain on the last day of the
January 2009 transfer window, Benitez shocked many observers by
accepting their bid for the player - in spite of the fact he seemingly
had no one to replace him.
The latest 'missing piece of the
jigsaw's' stay at Liverpool had lasted just over six months, and had
heralded just seven goals in 28 games in all competitions - hardly the
return expected from a man signed for 19 million. However, the decision
to let Keane leave would appear to have been the right one for both
parties. While Robbie immediately looked a more confident player back in
the white of Spurs, Liverpool embarked on a thrilling run of
performances that led them to within a whisker of overhauling Manchester
United at the top of the league.
Some things are simply not meant to be. Robbie Keane as a Liverpool player was apparently one of them. (David Fuller)
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