Robbie Keane divides opinion in Ireland and abroad. Despite scoring 51 goals in 108 internationals, being the joint tenth top-scorer in the Premier League era and Tottenham's ninth-highest goalscorer of all time, very few players of his standing in the game attract more criticism or scorn. He's never been a violent or thuggish player, never brought the game into disrepute or been guilty of serious misconduct. He's never deliberately got anyone sent off, never been needlessly sent off in a big match. His biggest crime? Being, in the words of a notorious pundit, a 'good player, but not a great player'. Is Robbie Keane's story one of unfulfilled potential, or that of a great pro who made the best of his talent, who just didn't get the breaks at the highest level of club football?
Within a handful of games for Ireland, it was clear that Keane had a completely different skill-set to previous Irish strikers. His technique was evidently superior, and he had a willingness to try the unpredictable; his finishing, as exhibited against Malta, Yugoslavia and Turkey in the Euro 2000 campaign, was usually confident, emphatic and off-the-cuff. In the years beforehand, Ireland's main strikers had been lumbering, old-fashioned centre-forwards like Quinn and Cascarino, or workmanlike but unspectacular forwards such as Aldridge and Coyne. The Irish attack favoured the methods of brute force and aerial prowess to inflict panic and confusion in opposition defences, and more often than not, it worked.However, qualification for Euro '96 had been scuppered by a 0-0 draw in Liechtenstein, while Mick McCarthy's first World Cup campaign foundered on inept home draws with Iceland and Lithuania. It was clear that Ireland needed someone with genuine technique, good movement and ruthless finishing ability to complement the height of Niall Quinn. Keane immediately met that criteria, and was undoubtedly the find of the Euro 2000 campaign. Only a last-minute goal in Macedonia denied him a first finals appearance.
All the while, he had become the most expensive teenager in the Premiership, the high point of an 11-goal season being a début brace against Derby, and a cheeky flick past David Seaman in a home win over Arsenal. Anything seemed possible for Keane at that stage, and a twelve million pound bid from Inter Milan brought Keane, aged just twenty, to the San Siro. However, his new manager, Marcello Lippi, was sacked just one game into the new season, and Keane fell out of favour. A move to Leeds followed, and while his loan move was a distinct success (9 goals in 18 games), his permanent move was soured when Leeds broke the bank for Robbie Fowler, relegating Keane to sporadic appearances, mostly from the bench. His form for Ireland also nosedived, with his longest goalscoring drought (8 games) coming in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. He did end the run with a fine volley against Iran in the playoff, and went on to perform heroics in the World Cup itself, netting against Germany, Saudi Arabia and Spain, but question marks remained about the direction of his club career.
His eventual move to Spurs, and the six years he spent there, yielded 107 goals in 251 appearances, bringing him into the top ten goalscorers in Tottenham history. In that time, Ireland failed to qualify for three major tournaments, with Keane criticised for 'failing to deliver' against the big teams, with most of his goals coming in friendlies, or against the lesser lights of the qualifying groups. He scored 2 in 6 games in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, 4 in 7 in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, and 4 in 11 games during the catastrophic Euro 2008 qualifiers under Steve Staunton. The highest-ranked teams he scored against in this six-year period were Albania and Israel.
The discrepancy between his club and international form was a source of irritation for many Irish fans during this period. Keane was at the undoubted peak of his powers for a perennial top-half Premier League side, but the Irish team was in a slump, and as Ireland lurched from one disappointment to another, popular opinion turned against Keane. The scrutiny intensified when he was named as Irish captain in 2006.The blame attributed to Keane for Ireland's malaise was totally disproportionate, however; gaping holes in the central midfield position, a lack of squad depth, Brian Kerr's conservatism and Staunton's tactical ineptitude were all factors in Keane's lack of goals. It shouldn't go unnoticed that Keane's regular strike partners, Clinton Morrison and Kevin Doyle, fared little better in the big games, while the outrageously talented Damien Duff was ploughing an increasingly lonely furrow on the wing, despite the swagger of his title-winning Chelsea exploits. The team had far more serious problems than the form of the top scorer.
However, to apply the highest level of criticism, it may have been that Keane just wasn't outstanding enough to fit the criteria of an elite Champions League striker. Throughout his career, Keane has relied on his well-honed striker's instinct and above-average technique to score goals; but his general one-footedness and lack of aerial ability arguably stopped him from being more 'complete', and he's never had blinding pace or awesome physical strength, which are usually pre-requisite attributes for a 'Top 4' striker in the modern EPL.
The Liverpool setback, and his return to Spurs, began a gradual decline in his fortunes and reputation at club level. However, his international form has since been exceptional, with six goals in the 2010 qualifiers, including an equaliser against Italy and a memorable opener in France as Ireland gradually regained their competitiveness and respectability under Giovanni Trapattoni. A brace against Macedonia in June 2011 took his record to nineteen in twenty-seven games under the Italian, and at international level at least, he looks more accomplished than ever.
However, there is a feeling in EPL circles that, like Michael Owen, Benjani, Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy, there is an air of 'damaged goods' about Ireland's all-time top goalscorer. Transfers always involve certain risks, particularly for ageing forward players, and Keane's injury-hit spell at West Ham did little for his market value. There are many uncertainties in Keane's immediate future, but it would be a shame if the ninth-top goalscorer in the Premier League era was to befall the ignominy of more bench-warming or demotion to the Championship. Any brief glance at the statistics would suggest he's better than that.
Keane has had quite an inconsistent career; opinion is generally divided, even in Ireland, as to his overall merits. People don't warm easily to Keane, perhaps because he doesn't fit the expectations of the Irish sports star; the grounded rural lads who stay close to their roots, the Paul O'Connells and Henry Shefflins of this world. He's a cocky backstreet Dub who probably wouldn't have amounted to a great deal in life if not for soccer. He is as close to a 'continental' forward as Ireland have ever had; not just for his technique and flamboyance, but an infuriating tendency to moan at referees when decisions don't go his way. I would argue that his on-field protests are more often symptoms of highly-strung frustration than, say, the aggressive, expletive-filled tirades that often utter forth from Wayne Rooney, or the calculated theatrics of Didier Drogba - but it does affect people's judgement of the player.
So is Keane an example of unfulfilled potential? Hard to say. If he had more stability in the early part of his career, as John Giles has suggested, he may have ironed out the kinks in his game and become a more refined and consistent striker. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
Watching Ireland play live, one notices that he works extremely hard for the team, and does a lot of running which goes undetected by the cameras. Indeed, many of his travails at Anfield were the result of Keane 'trying too hard' when it was clear he was under intense pressure from the manager to justify his fee. It doesn't smack of a player who failed for lack of application or dedication. His technical and physical limitations probably account for any 'failure' in Keane's career; he was, perhaps, some way short of 'world class', but there are hundreds of more technically gifted footballers around the world who have achieved far less than Keane. Javier Saviola, Ariel Ortega, Giovanni dos Santos and Roman Riquelme, for example, are not similarly derided for failing at top clubs. Irish players such as Anthony Stokes and Andy Reid had precocious talents, perhaps equal to those of Keane's - yet their achievements in the game pale in comparison, despite being given numerous chances in their careers. In the great divide between the 'good pro' and the 'frustrating maverick', Keane surely comes out on the better side.
To deride Keane's achievement in international football is puerile, however. International football does lack the overall quality of the current Champions League, or the top six of the EPL; there are plenty of games against limited and awkward opponents which fail to attract the imagination of the general public. However, you can only play what's in front of you. Keane's goals have saved Ireland from plenty of Liechtenstein/Lithuania-type embarrassments over the years, and kept Ireland in the running in groups that would have slipped away much earlier. In the EPL, he has been neglected by his manager at Spurs for reasons that appear more personal than based on footballing merit; his goal-per-game ratio for Spurs is a healthy 0.38, compared to those of Defoe (0.33), Pavlyuchenko (0.27) and Crouch (0.16). He's still a valuable footballer, and hopefully a good season in the Premier League and a summer in Ukraine and Poland next year will exorcise some of the cynics.
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