Rafa: Keane not good enough
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Rafa: $12m was a very good offer for a player at 28...
RAFA BENITEZ last night insisted: Don’t blame me for Robbie Keane’s Kop flop. The Liverpool boss says he should not carry the can for the Irishman’s cut-price £12million move back to Spurs.
Keane hit just seven goals after his £20m signing last summer. Benitez said: “You have to go on the pitch and perform and it wasn’t the case.
“Robbie played a lot of games here but for a number of reasons he wasn’t at the level he can be. “There’s the understanding with your team-mates, tactics of the other teams playing deep and you’re not getting much space, a lot of things.
“We had a problem because a good player wasn’t playing at his level so, in the end, selling him was best for us all.
“We had to support him, give him a lot of games — he started over 20 — but in the end we had to make a decision. “We had talks about what he was doing, at a professional and personal level.
Benitez will forever have the £20.3million price tag that he paid for the striker hanging round his neck like a wing-clipped albatross.
Confidence
“Robbie needed to play to have confidence again because he’s not been reaching the level we know. "We had to decide quickly because it was a situation that, at his age, couldn’t keep going on.”
Benitez said the decision was taken with the blessing of co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett — both of whom were at Sunday’s win over Chelsea — plus chief executive Rick Parry.
Benitez added: “You always try to work together. Everyone was aware of the situation. “It was a very good offer for a player of 28, so maybe it will be good for him as well.”
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lol, rafa you make the mistake of signing him, now you blame him? cockster
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it's not even rafa who wanted to sign him. it's rick
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Originally posted by limpper:
it's not even rafa who wanted to sign him. it's rick
well, you mean rafa is led thru the nose??? funnily, the photo above is not like that leh..
I guess rafa is not man enough to admit mistakes then... poor keane.. kanna kick out of bounds...by club he supports..
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Originally posted by limpper:
it's not even rafa who wanted to sign him. it's rick
Actually, Rafa did want him and Barry... Keane was to replace Crouch... Barry was for Alonso... When Villa refused to sell Barry, Alonso had to stay back despite Juve being keen to take him... Or maybe even Arsenal... only the price didn't work out.
Rick on the other hand, as the CEO... Had to get both or either one. So, he manage to get one of the targets tho not the preferred one. But it was still one of the 2 targets... No fault of his if Villa really didn't want to sell.
Rafa for all his veiled suggestions, DID want Keane
ROBBIE KEANE will return to White Hart Lane as an Anfield fall-guy who failed to make an impact. Yet arguably the Irishman’s biggest mistake was quite simple — he was not called Gareth Barry.
Boss Rafa Benitez, for all his veiled suggestions to the contrary, DID want Keane. He was NOT merely an alternative when attempts to land Barry from Aston Villa were scuppered.
Benitez had identified the then-Spurs frontman as a key addition last season. The Spaniard was determined to bring him AND Barry to Liverpool, with the sale of Peter Crouch and Xabi Alonso funding it.
When Crouch joined Portsmouth, in came Keane to fill the gap up front. When Alonso stayed put, the Kop boss was told the money was not available to bring in the Villa skipper too. Benitez was not pleased and — if he had to choose just one — Barry would have been the man.
From that moment Keane, very much a pawn in the political game which is tearing Anfield apart, was on a hiding to nothing. Last night it led to Liverpool taking an £8million hit on the deal when he rejoined Spurs for just £12m.
But while Keane, 28, himself would admit he has never hit the heights, there are certain excuses for his failing. After arriving as supposedly the perfect partner for Fernando Torres — backed up by their display in a stunning pre-season win at Rangers — he was then used on the right in another friendly win over Valerenga.
Benitez likes his players to perform in a variety of positions. Witness Dirk Kuyt’s role as the prime example, going from central attacker to right wing.
Keane simply was not a wide man, so that was one box left unticked. True, he did not make the immediate impact everyone hoped and expected for a man who cost £20m. But it took Peter Beardsley three months to take off when he signed, in 1987, yet no one farmed him out as a flop. Torres’ battles with injuries meant the partnership never got off the ground.
So how ironic that when the Spaniard rediscovers his shooting boots, Keane is sold the next day. When Keane slipped a superb through ball for David Ngog to score against PSV Eindhoven in December, fans were salivating at what he would provide for Torres when he was back.
It was a chance that never came. If, heaven forbid, Torres’ hamstring does sideline him at any stage in the second half of the campaign, it will hardly be the most potent strikeforce Liverpool have ever taken into Europe.
Should that be the case it is a safe bet the Koppites who have sided with Benitez through all the in-fighting will not be belting out his name with quite as much gusto. To say the least.
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some one got pawned
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not good enough?
keans has proven over his career that he is better than 90% of the liverpool squad.
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Originally posted by dragg:
keans has proven over his career that he is better than 90% of the liverpool squad.
lols -
Keane short stay in Anfield
WTF! GTG
Created by Ball of Steel in F365 -
Lolx nice video hahahah
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i waiting for keane to reply
"Rafa is not good enough" -
then is rafa good for liverpool? havent won the league since he took over.
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Spurs made £8 in 6 months, thanks to sucker team - Liverpool.
Always buy expensive sell cheap.... sigh....
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Though the deal is $12m, but if Spurs win some titles or cups this next 3.5 yrs, it could go up to $15m...
But on the minus side... Pool got to continue paying Keane $20,000 for the next 3 and a half yrs lah... Just to make up the difference in his salary...
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Originally posted by zocoss:
Though the deal is $12m, but if Spurs win some titles or cups this next 3.5 yrs, it could go up to $15m...
But on the minus side... Pool got to continue paying Keane $20,000 for the next 3 and a half yrs lah... Just to make up the difference in his salary...
that is 3.64m pounds already....
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OT: finally see you typing liao..
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Originally posted by X-men:
Spurs made £8 in 6 months, thanks to sucker team - Liverpool.
Always buy expensive sell cheap.... sigh....
Chinese New Year Ang Bao from Liverpool = 5 million pounds + additional wages for player.
Gong Xi Fa Cai, hope you buy another player from us.
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Originally posted by QX179R:
OT: finally see you typing liao..
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liverpool must miss keane terribly after gerrard's injury against everton this morning.