January Transfer Window 2011

:stuck_out_tongue: what’s the word??

Keane has rubbished yesterday’s stories about his Birmingham move - calling them a PR stunt, and pointing out that there was no deal offered for him to reject.

Of course some people will choose to believe greed got in the way.

And you’ll choose to believe him over quoted B’Ham sources, so none of us know who’s telling the truth.

But have you ever heard about the boy who cried wofl?

Keane’s always sought regular first team football and he’s moved on in the past when it hasn’t been available (Inter, Liverpool). Birmingham are in a relegation battle and their owner’s representative publicly spoke about Keane yesterday and did likewise with Miller amongst others. I’d go with Keane on this one ahead of a goal shy club that’s possibly trying to pacify its supporters.

The huns have announced that Kenny Miller has agreed terms with Bursaspor and is travelling to Turkey tomorrow to undergo a medical ahead of signing for them.

I have of course heard of him Kev. You don’t seem overly familiar with the message in the story - it has little relevance here unless you can show us instances of Keane lying about his wage demands before and then of course you might recall the end of the story which is when the boy tells the truth. Are you in fact suggesting that Keane is telling the truth here, having lied before, or did you just choose your parable badly?

Anyway the statement from Birmingham yesterday was fairly gracious about Keane, and as I pointed out yesterday it was as much a decision about the contract length Keane expected rather than anything. Birmingham said:
“Everyone knows he is a tremendous player but having considered the overall package (one which certainly wasn’t unfair on the part of his representatives to ask for given his talent and experience), Keane’s age and the length of contract we felt that financially he wasn’t the best option available.”

That was spun into “greedy Keane” and the accusation he was demanding a wage increase and all sorts of other nonsense.

It’s not that hard to arrive at something approaching the truth. Informal soundings out from Birmingham of ball park figures from Keane’s representatives. They send back his current salary and expected contract length and Birmingham conclude they don’t believe he’s worth it.

No offer, no rejection, no wage increase sought etc etc.

But despite the actual statements in the public domain feel free to conclude otherwise.

Rocko, you nicely left out the fact that they questioned him not willing to move to B’Ham, openly, and that it may affect the moral in the team in their opinion. The assistant manager said this 2-3 days ago.

That would be a more likely story for me than the money. This was stated before any money came into it, and i believe what happened was AM decided as soon as he wasn’t willing to move that he’d forget about it, and the press kept it going till yesterday.

The defending of Keane is hilarious, you’d swear he was related to some of ye.

I think the truth will hit Robbie when its all over Rocko, when its too late and he realises he fucked around too much. Like his namesake he’ll admit as much down the road.

The sniping at Keane based on media conjecture is obscene. Peter Grant tried his heart out as a player for Celtic but he was part of an inept management team with Mowbray and Venus and I don’t put any store in what he said about Keane. Frankly, I didn’t expect him to uproot his family to Scotland last year as he signed on a loan deal for 5 months. I also didn’t have any issue with him returning to London after a game on Saturday if he was not required to report back for training until Tuesday morning; it’s effectively no different to people heading home for a weekend from any job. His record of 16 goals in 19 games doesn’t indicate a lack of professionalism either.

Apparently those who believe the Birmingham Chairman and the statements from Robbie Keane himself are deluded but Kev isn’t because he knows better.

The quotes from Grant were in the papers here 2-3 days ago but they were actually made about 10 days ago and in the overall context of Grant saying that Birmingham are interested in signing him but it’s not a done deal yet. The story in the past couple of days is that Birmingham have said they’re not signing him for financial reasons based on his age and that his demands were reasonable.

Only someone with a chip on their shoulder would twist it.

I hope Keane moves and I’d hate to see an agent get in the way of it but I find it particularly funny that a moron with no professional sporting background can slag off Ireland’s record ever goalscorer and talk about the truth hitting him down the road and Keane fucking about too much. What a first class clown. He’s done rather well for himself and you’d want to be a peculiar sort of begrudger to refuse to admit that.

Ha, they are really upset by this. I’m not entitled to my opinion now because i’m not a professional sportsman. :lol:

Someday you’ll realise how retarded what you said is.

I have actually been quite realistic and balanced on RK, he has done alot of good things, but ye are so blinded its funny. In my OPINION he moved around far too much, and i firmly believe he never realised his full potential, due to that, not being properly fit in the early years of his career and having massive runs of not playing.

On the other side ye refuse to accept he had/has fairly major failings for a pro.

I think Kev is spot on about Keane here to be honest.

You are entitled to your opinion, you’re not entitled to your opinion being right.

The suggestion that Keane is a wasted talent is preposterous. He’s an elite sportsman and the best Irish soccer player since Roy Keane who has absolutely destroyed the Irish goalscoring record.

Only someone with an irrational dislike for the man would accuse him of wasting talent by moving around far too much and then criticise him for being greedy and not moving now. You really have to disregard all logic not to be blinded by the hypocrisy there.

The facts show that he’s always moved either:

  1. to a much bigger club or
  2. to increase his chances of playing time.

As I said before it takes a particularly special type of begrudgery to find fault with his ambition or his commitment to his career. And whether you’re a professional sportsman or not it’s absurd to claim that he has wasted his talent given what he has achieved and the records he has broken for Ireland.

I wonder if the Keane knockers would care to imagine how successful Ireland would have been without him. No World Cup in 2002 and not a prayer of a qualification since. 45 international goals and he’s still judged by quotes taken out of context by the assistant manager of a team spiralling towards relegation, who also stated that they’d love to have him. And the Birmingham chairman supported that yesterday with his own comments. And yet the gombeens and the know-nothings of the Irish sporting public who believe the odd Premiership highlights package on tv is enough to entitle them to a credible opinion, decide he hasn’t been successful and he hasn’t been ambitious. And then the most foolish, the most deluded of them all claims that he’s a “bad influence” in dressing rooms. The next most deluded guy thinks he’s shown a poor attitude because he defended his manager on a Late Late Show appearance.

Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.

Those of us who judge Robbie Keane on his performances on the pitch don’t need to defend him at all because his record frankly speaks for itself. There was a bit of talk here the other day about whether Stapleton was better or not. Stapleton was a fine striker but even ignoring their international careers (where Robbie’s record is vastly superior) Stapleton had 151 goals in 658 career appearances. Take away his time at Bradford at the end and it was 149 goals in 550 appearances. Keane has 157 goals in 429 games playing for inferior teams in a tougher league mostly. You can go on and draw whatever comparisons you want but it starts to become irrelevant. You really do need to have a chip on your shoulder to suggest the guy wasted his talent.

3 things, i don’t give enough of a fuck about soccer or RK to have a chip on my shoulder. And he didn’t fulfill his talent, i didn’t say he wasted his talent. Wasted would mean he never made it, he did though waste alot of time.

“And yet the gombeens and the know-nothings of the Irish sporting public who believe the odd Premiership highlights package on tv is enough to entitle them to a credible opinion, decide he hasn’t been successful and he hasn’t been ambitious.”

This is hilarious coming from someone who says has said in the past he doesn’t watch that much EPL. :lol:

Creating a website seems to have you thinking you are this all knowing sporting knowledge yourself. You are a medium size fish in an extremely small pond, don’t forget that. I happen to know professional footballers who would have similar opinions as me, does that make you completely wrong? No i don’t think it does.

But you are so quick to jump to RK’s defence that you don’t see i’m not completely dissing him, i really just have an opinion that he moved around alot, struggled to fit in in more than one club, missed massive runs of games and IMO didn’t get as much as he could have out of it. I can accept you thinking he did what he could, but disagree, but i don’t know why that means you are all knowing and anyone who holds my view (which is a hell of alot of people) are sporting retards.

I think you’re being a bit harsh on Robbie here, Kev. It may be fair to say he’s not fulfilled his full potential at club level but he’s regaularly taken steps to try and progress this career. He took what he thought was his big chance when he moved to Liverpool but unfotunately he was messed around a bit by Benitez when he really didn’t fit into his plans.

The move to Inter may have been a bit naive but he wasn’t afraid to try and take his chance with one of the biggest clubs in Europe.

Now i respect that opinion, even if i don’t agree with it. He should have known the story at Liverpool, no matter what Rafa did after.

Is he with the same agent since the pool deal?

If anyone was having a look at shoulder chips I would suggest a former AIL player would rank highest among all during this discussion with curry cheese and whatever else on top. Higher than even the players mentioned on this thread and appearing to be getting personally indignant defending a player he reportedly only sees playing 10 times or less every 2 years. First off, Keane has made himself a very wealthy man at a very high level of football. He has a fine goalscoring record at international level but also club level leaving aside the last two seasons. He has done very well for himself and should be applauded for that. I think he could have been even better. I dont think he was the greatest professional in the game, was often in poor physical condition, never learned to head the ball, his effort on the pitch was often questionable and you wouldnt need to be deluded to suggest that if he had improved on these matters that he would have been even better.

[quote=“caoimhaoin, post: 541297”]I happen to know professional footballers
[/quote]
FFS :lol:

Also can we put KIB’s posts in the dungeon until he figures out how to properly quote a message?

[quote=“caoimhaoin, post: 541299”]
Now i respect that opinion, even if i don’t agree with it. He should have known the story at Liverpool, no matter what Rafa did after.

Is he with the same agent since the pool deal?
[/quote]

I don’t honestly know.

Keane was a failure at Inter, a failure at Liverpool, a failure at Leeds and, in the last couple of years, a failure at Spurs and Ireland. For a man of his talent, that’s disappointing.
On the other hand, he has the goalscoring record, a good spell at Coventry and Wolves and at the beginning of Spurs.

I was a big fan of him until I started going to all the home Ireland matches 5 years ago. Watching him on the pitch, I think the man is an utter farce. Whingeing when it’s easier to chase the ball, pretending to go for headers (jumping early or late as he is afraid of his shite), pulling out of challenges. Maybe because he is hyped up so much that I am harder on him than others but I don’t see the whinging and the cowardly aspect to any other player’s game.

A great goalscorer no doubt but an utterly infuriating player to watch. His goals record should not mean he’s not subject to criticism though.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2634771/2/istockphoto_2634771-hitting-a-nail-on-the-head.jpg