Keane completes Liverpool Move

Villain

Sometimes morals mean more than rules, sadly rarely in the world of Soccer.

Karmafaerie

Villain wrote: »

Sometimes morals mean more than rules, sadly rarely in the world of Soccer.

Very true.
I know it's a buisness at the end of the day, but it's hard to not be disgusted at the greed and duplicity in modern day football.

At least the season's almost started so we can get back to hating reffs rather than chairmen!

Sizzler

Interesting take from a Spurs fan on the transfer from F365 mailbox.

wrote:

Keane: Nothing Without Berba
Glad to see that Mediawatch has unearthed the quote of Robbie 'Red 4 Life' Keane from a couple of years back, when he stated his desire to play for his (and most Irish players, it seems) boyhood idols................Celtic. Conveniently this has all been forgotten in the talk about how the fans' idol Robbie has not let the club down in any way, or misled them, when in fact his reasons for moving really aren't all that different from Gareth Barry.

I'm a Spurs fan, and have never been a huge fan of Keane. In fact, I have written in to this mailbox numerous times on the subject of how overrated he is. To receive upwards of £20million for a player, who you could argue really isn't likely to get much better, is a great bit of business, particularly as he is only worth about half of that (and that's being generous!). As I think someone touched on the other day, Keane was nothing at Spurs until Berbatov arrived. In fact, he was on the bench behind Mido, as hard as that is to believe, and was forever linked with transfer window exits to teams such as Villa (very average at the time) for a fee in the region of £7million. Over the last 2 seasons, his goal return has indeed been impressive, but for anyone who has ever watched Spurs regularly, this is because he feeds off Berbatov's scraps. Him and Torres won't be as effective a partnership as Torres and Berbatov are completely different in terms of their style of play. And all these people who think Keane can play in link-up and attacking midfielder roles, he can't. He likes to drop back and get involved, but all he really does is end up clogging up the midfield. Plus, if he's such a great striker, how comes he's often shunted to midfield positions for a team who couldn't manage to finish above 11th last year? The media love-in with Keane is ridiculous too, he is good technically, but the ITV commentators trying to claim he intentionally shinned a volley in against Famagusta was unbelievable.....

Personally, I'm glad he's gone, as I have never been a fan, and as I've said all along (and written in about more than once), I think Darren Bent is one of the best goalscorers in the Premiership, and given a 1st-team chance next season (either at Spurs or elsewhere), will score 20+ goals (except maybe at one of the promoted clubs).

But considering how clueless our board is (trying to buy Arshavin when he's almost a Modric clone), we'll probably sell Berbatov AND Bent, and start the season with a completely unproven foreign strikeforce.
Tom Evans, Ware

Karmafaerie

Sizzler wrote: »

Interesting take from a Spurs fan on the transfer from F365 mailbox.

I love the way Keane didn't play well untill Berbatov came.
So all the Spurs fans who voted him club player of the season the year before Berbatov signed, must have been psychic.
And the same fans who voted him club player of the season last year must have not being watching the same team :pac:

This sums up for me how clueless this guy is though!

But considering how clueless our board is (trying to buy Arshavin when he's almost a Modric clone)

I'm trying hard to think of anyway this could be considered accurate....

They're both smallish.
They both have blondish hair.
Ohh, they both have "r" and "i" in their name!!!!!




Priceless.

Mr Alan

From Brian Reade:

Here's the reason why most Kopites think..
2/08/2008

...£20million for 28-year-old Robbie Keane is good business: Spurs will be paid by raising cash from selling Peter Crouch (who didn't fit the system), John Arne Riise (who would have been put down if he'd stayed) and Danny Guthrie (who would only have been loaned out again). And Keane will be paid using Harry Kewell's wages (who will only be missed by the St John Ambulance stretcher-bearers).

Thanx 4 The Fish

Great quote that

jesus_thats_gre

Karmafaerie wrote: »

I'm trying hard to think of anyway this could be considered accurate....

They're both smallish.
They both have blondish hair.
Ohh, they both have "r" and "i" in their name!!!!!




Priceless.

In fairness...

Karmafaerie

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

In fairness...

They're different players.

Arshavin is an off the front man/men player.
Modric is a modfield general.

Calling them the same type of player is like saying that Gerrard and Fabregeas are the same type of player.

And that quote above states that Arshavin and Modric can't play together.
I think that's stupid.

Gerrard and Fabregeas could play brilliantly together, and we'll all see Arshavin and Modric do it this season if the media are to be believed.

~Rebel~

Thats true, could make a fantastic team out of 2 DMF's, a Modric, 2 Arshavins and a front man.

slumped

I'm not sure Keane's transfer is all that good.

What has he done so far??

Shaun Wright Phillips would have been a good signing - give pool some width.

S

~Rebel~

slumped wrote: »

I'm not sure Keane's transfer is all that good.

What has he done so far??

Shaun Wright Phillips would have been a good signing - give pool some width.

S

Played very well in his last game. Its in the next match that we'll be especially pleased to have him though, top quality cover was badly needed up front. Had we not got Keane who'd be starting up front against ManU? Kuyt? Babel? N'Gog? Not the best of options, but with Keane we can still field a very strong team. Keane's a versatile player which is what we needed as otherwise we end up benching a top player when Torres is fit (a la crouch last year), but Keane can play in either of the WF positions if necessary or in the center of the 3 in a 4-2-3-1, which is where he's most likely to be.

SWP would have been a good buy alright (though id imagine could cost us far more then he cost city) but it would have been a case of 'as well as' rather then 'instead of' a top striker.

Tusky

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Played very well in his last game. Its in the next match that we'll be especially pleased to have him though, top quality cover was badly needed up front. Had we not got Keane who'd be starting up front against ManU? Kuyt? Babel? N'Gog? Not the best of options, but with Keane we can still field a very strong team. Keane's a versatile player which is what we needed as otherwise we end up benching a top player when Torres is fit (a la crouch last year), but Keane can play in either of the WF positions if necessary or in the center of the 3 in a 4-2-3-1, which is where he's most likely to be.

SWP would have been a good buy alright (though id imagine could cost us far more then he cost city) but it would have been a case of 'as well as' rather then 'instead of' a top striker.

While Keane is a v.good player and a decent signing, he isnt really the answer to our problem. Our two big attacking signings were Riera at 8m and Keane at 20m. So lets just round that up to 30m to keep it simple.

Last season our best lineup was as follows.

---

Torres

Babel

---

Gerrard

---

Kuyt

If we had 30m to spend on improving that line up, Its pretty obvious to me that we should spend the majority (around 20m) of it on the RWF position while spending about 8-10m on replacing Crouch.

That would give us this -

---

Torres

Babel

---

Gerrard

---

20m

With a 10m pound replacement for Crouch on the bench.

It would be keeping Gerrard in the position he played so well in last year, also keeping the same formation and dramatically improving our right hand side. In regards to the left hand side, obviously it would be preferable to get in some backup for Babel. However, if we couldnt afford it, Benayoun is a decentish backup.

Keane is kind of the answer to a problem we didnt have. Playing him means one of the following.

a) Keane playing in the right attacking slot (not his natural position)

b) Gerrard playing in the right attacking slot (breaking up his partnership with Torres)

c) Changing the formation to 4-4-2 which really doesnt suit Torres or our wide men. It also means dropping Alonso.

I was happy when we signed Keane BUT I assumed we would be able to sign a top class wide right player.

I still think he'll do well here but I think he creates extra problems rather than solves our problem from last season. I just think the below would have been much more preferable.

---

Torres

Babel

---

Gerrard

---

Natural right sided attacker 20m

---

Masch--Alonso

Bench:

10m replacement for Crouch.

~Rebel~

the problem with saying a 10mill replacement for crouch who's good enough to replace Nando whenever he's injured, but also happy to sit on the bench is; Who?!

Diego Milito is one option, but he wouldn't be happy to sit on the bench and with his stye of play wouldn't fit anywhere really other then Torres position. Saha would have been one, but united wouldn't sell to us and he probably wouldn't be happy to sit on the bench. Owen, again wouldn't be happy to sit on bench and can only play in torres spot.

The ideal choice, as i said at the start of the summer was to spend a lot of money on a top top quality RWF who can also play comfortably up top when we need it, that way he's playing plenty and we dont capitulate if Torres is out. Benzema is the obvious one, but would probably have cost too much. Aguero also would have fit. Eto'o could have been another option, but i hate seeing him play wide, even though he can, as its such a waste of one of the best CF's out there.

Keane, is another player who can also do this. Granted i much prefer him center, but he can still be effective in a wide role, once he's allowed to come inside and support Torres when the ball is over on the left wing, with the RB coming up around or just past the halfway line to provide the width, and Masch watching that flank defensively. A whole lot depends on how successfully Gerrard, Torres and Keane move around together. If they stay too rigid, the formation simply won't work imo, but if they can play like Silva, Villa and Torres did at the euro's with any of them popping up in any of the 3 positions, then it could be pretty tasty. Last season we saw plenty of times Torres moving out to the space on the right to receive the ball but have noone supporting inside so he'd have to pass back to midfield. gerrard too always roams around the pitch into space. If the 3 can all shift around (4 if babel is playing) so that each position is always covered by one of them, it brings each players strengths out, while also causing a bit of confusion amongst the Defenders who become forced to play zonal rather then having a designated marker for Torres for example.

Theres a large 'If' involved in all of that, but there is definately the potential there for a strong fluid formation. Rafa obviously has a plan given that he brought in Keane and Riera, so we'll just have to wait and see.

herbieflowers

what about playing Kuyt or Babel up front?

~Rebel~

herbieflowers wrote: »

what about playing Kuyt or Babel up front?

a lot of our worst results and performances last year came when kuyt was up front without Torres, blackburn springs to mind. He's fine, but its still a massive step down from Torres. Same with Babel, isn't ready to be a loan man up front yet. Either of them up front With torres i think is fine, but on their own, just not quite good enough for a team that should be going out to win every match.

herbieflowers

Yeah, I'd still like to see one of them up front with Torres more often, though. Seems wasteful, in my view.