Robbie Keane - A lost legend

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remembercolinlee

remembercolinlee

Well-Known Member
Jan 1, 2012
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Before June 2008 Robbie Keane was seen as a Spurs Legend in the making.
He scored some cracking goals in his 100 plus total and having joined us when we were truly **** had helped us up to being a top 5 side. He Lifted the Carling cup with Ledley and had tears in his eyes as we won the final ... he had formed a fantastic partnership with Berbatov too.
Robbie signed a new contract after the 2008 final win over Chelsea saying that he wanted to finish his career with us.
Then in a heart beat he demanded to join liverpool ... his boyhood club! who he joined for £21m in June 2008...and was forced to endure a terrible 6 month visit to merseyside. When he returned in Jan 2009 for £14m he played well until the following December (he was a big part of us going from bottom 4 to 8th in the league in the last part of the 08/09 season...and he played well during the beginning of the 09/10 season ... he scored 4 in one match...he then fell out with Redknapp over a drinking trip to Ireland that xmas and was regularly sent out on loan to various clubs (Celtic; West Ham) until we sold him again for around £6m to LA Galaxy in 2011.

I was pleased for him last night to become the most capped ROI international ever and to get a hat trick ... he is also the ROI's record goal scorer

But I don't see him as a legend ... and don't think I ever will.

I think that a lot of spurs fans respect him and think he was a very good player but don't seem to feel too fondly about him.

My (very long winded) question is;

Does Robbie Keane deserve to be seen as a legend in the way that Ginola is? They both played for us when we were **** and both won the Carling cup with us and were both very good players...Ginola played for us for 3 or 4 years and keane played for us for 5 or 6 years. They both left to join other clubs. But to me Ginola is the one I think of most fondly!
 
Robbie Keane is an enigma of sorts .He was on his way to legend status I believe until he jilted us for Liverpool ,and like any relationship it was not the same after he came back to us after the "affair". I don't know if that would have changed if he had scored buckets of goals when he came back but he didn't so who knows.

Irish fans have the same mixed opinion of him for some bizarre reason.He is the all time highest international goalscorer in the British Isles with 59 goals at nearly a goal every 2 games yet is perceived to be "useless" by most fans ,Personally I think he has to rank as one of the greatest Irish international players ever yet he wouldn't feature in most peoples top ten .

122 goals for Spurs - top ten of all time
59 international goals -38 more than the previous record holder
If that's not a legend what is ?
 
Keano. Scored some crackers. Waved his arms around. Had a good goal celebration. A decent forward for us, but unless a striker is a Klinsmann, a Berbatov, a Sheringham we will always have a slight moan at someone not in their league, because we compare to the very best.
 
Keane tainted himself with the way that his move to Liverpool went, but I still think of him with some fondness.
He's the only player that I've ever seen get Darren Bent to put in a shift, for a start! <laugh>
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Keane tainted himself with the way that his move to Liverpool went, but I still think of him with some fondness.
He's the only player that I've ever seen get Darren Bent to put in a shift, for a start! <laugh>
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Should be respected I think for what he actually achieved for us - which is quite a few goals - in its own right, without having to be compared to the other names mentioned. Also respected him for not celebrating a goal against a previous club.
 
I love Robbie. Whether he's a legend I don't know to be honest.

However, he joined us when we were **** and stuck with us for a long time during a period where (as usual in recent times) we won **** all.
Seeing him join Liverpool was gutting, but in a way, I don't blame him. As we've discussed in depth, we always sell our best players as it seems to be about profit rather than success. He probably thought that the time was right to leave as he didn't know where on earth we were headed. At the time, Liverpool was a good option, even though it didn't work out.
I don't hold anything against him for leaving. We do nothing to help ourselves in these situations.

If bale stays, it'll be such a statement of intent from us and a massive change of attitude.
 
vimhawk said:
Should be respected I think for what he actually achieved for us - which is quite a few goals - in its own right, without having to be compared to the other names mentioned. Also respected him for not celebrating a goal against a previous club.
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True.
I remember him murdering Wolves, plundering a hat-trick and not celebrating any of them. Cold comfort for their fans, I guess, but a decent show of respect.
 
I like Robbie and always have done. I don't think of him as a Spurs legend, but I will not say a word against him and I love his enthusiasm for the game.
 
Always hated him since that goal & celebration in the 4-4. Threw a tantrum I was so angry. Title thrown away <doh>
 
Great for a period and pretty good for us overall. It's his longevity with us more than anything that puts him up there as a player held in high esteem with our fans. Yeah we took the piss out of him by the end but he was a good guy and as much as the way he left was disappointing, he should be, and I believe is, remembered fondly.

He's records at international level are incredible. Irish legend, quality player for Spurs.
 
Daniel Levy absolutely loved Robbie Keane and was delighted to meet up with him again at the beginning of the year when Keane spent some time training with us.
 
Ginola didn't want to go when he went, he didn't move to a 'boyhood' club either! We did do well out of L'pool I think, I saw descriptions like '10m loan'! <laugh>

Apart from being the 5th highest European international scorer, I saw another breakdown of that, he's only behind Raul and Jan Koller (another impressive but less glamorous scorer who didn't start his Int. career til he was 25) as highest scorer in the Qualifying stage.
 
All that needs to be said is that a team of Robbie Keanes would be a fine, fine team.

I also like the way that even he seemed to get a bit embarrassed by his goal celebration by the end. I think it's fair to say that in the Premiership a cart-wheel into a forward-roll had been somewhat eclipsed as a gymnastic feat by then.

Robbie had to win his place in the starting line-up and there was little doubt in anyone's mind at the time that he eventually deserved to start ahead of Defoe - now our number one striker. For years I had doubts to his real class and finishing but during that period with Berbatov he really was excellent. And always put a real shift in too.

Think it's a bit of a shame that, really, for one of our best, hardest-working, quality players of the last decade, many fans have a bit of a sour taste in their mouth regarding him. He won player of the year three years out of five.

Fair enough - he was a bit crap on the second time round. But even then contributed a lot to getting us out of the hole we'd dug ourselves into.

If ANY player for Spurs in the early-mid 2000s deserves "legend" status he'd have to be well up there. The "if" at the beginning of that sentence is a big "if", mind.
 
You're spot on colin. I blinked when I saw he was leaving us when he was at his peak imo and was going to Liverpool. I didn't have a computer then but thought it a huge mistake. Ginola was more of a crowd pleaser and so is a legend but somehow not Robbie.
 
Cheers for the answers guys...I do have a lot of time for robbie and he scored some great goals...that blackburn goal in 2006 or 7 at the lane was my favourite...I just wish he hadnt been such a dick in going to liverpool a month after saying he was going to end his career with us.
 
remembercolinlee said:
Cheers for the answers guys...I do have a lot of time for robbie and he scored some great goals...that blackburn goal in 2006 or 7 at the lane was my favourite...I just wish he hadnt been such a dick in going to liverpool a month after saying he was going to end his career with us.
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Was that the one where he got the ball from a throw in and went past about 3 players and the 'keeper before knocking it in? I'd forgotten about that goal, it was my favourites goal from anyone for a long while and never got the credit he deserved for it.
 
Yid Vicious said:
Was that the one where he got the ball from a throw in and went past about 3 players and the 'keeper before knocking it in? I'd forgotten about that goal, it was my favourites goal from anyone for a long while and never got the credit he deserved for it.
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That's the one....a really class goal
 
Keane's international record is testament to his pride and passion, which are so obviously lacking in many of his English counterparts. To score 59 international goals for a middle ranking nation- many against higher ranked teams (he's scored against Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Holland) is a great achievement, especially when the next best is 21 goals in 92 games (Niall Quinn).

However, at club level, he's always been too quick to move on. He never really made his mark anywhere. Bearing in mind what he's achieved for the ROI, you would think that had he stayed at one club for a period of time and become the focal point of their attack, he could have been celebrated as a record scorer in club football too.
 
I was a big fan of RK - loved his enthusiasm and as has been highlighted, his goal scoring record for us and Ireland was impressive. And although disappointed at the time, I don't hold the Liverpool departure against him. Ultimately, the ££ gain for the club probably outweighed the loss of the player. He probably got under oppo fans and players a bit (not a bad thing at times), but I loved that fact he played the game with a smile on his face mostly.

However, whilst he arrived when we were comparatively '****', he also owed Spurs a good deal for bringing his career back on course. He was a 'Boy Wonder' who shot to fame on the back of several high profile and high value transfers before the age of 20/21, but his stock was definitely not high when we made the investment - the brief sojourns at Inter and Leeds had seen to that. At Spurs he found a proper home and thrived.

The Jury is out for me as to whether he will ever should be considered a legend, but definitely one of our best players of the last 50 years and someone who I think deserves a place in any 'Hall of Fame'.
 
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