After Jermain Defoe and Pascal Chimbonda, another former Spurs player has returned to White Hart Lane in the winter transfer window. The player is none other than Liverpool forward Robbie Keane, who had left Spurs for Liverpool last summer for £20m.
The fee for Keane was thought to be somewhere around £15m, but reports have now confirmed that Spurs have paid £12m in cash with the possibility of further add ons for the striker . Spurs were initially keen to a cash+player swap, but finally settled for an all cash deal. Liverpool also allegedly owed Tottenham around £10m in installments for Keane.
Keane struggled to adjust at life at Anfield, and reports were always linking him with a move out of Liverpool. Two possible winter destinations were Manchester City and Everton, but he has returned to the club where he spent six successful seasons- Tottenham Hotspur. Keane originally joined Tottenham from Leeds United for £7m.
Keane joins a long list of recent Liverpool forwards who have struggled to cement their place at Anfield- Fernando Morientes, Djibril Cisse, Peter Crouch, Milan Baros, El Hadji Diouf, Craig Bellamy and Andriy Voronin being the others.
This is what Robbie Keane had to say on his return
It was a difficult decision to make to leave Tottenham in the summer. It proved not to be the right move for me. I know some Spurs fans will feel I let them down by leaving but I can assure them I shall be giving my all for this Club – this Club has terrific fans and I want to repay them for all their support. We’ve got to get on and fight our way up that league table.
The injury to Jermaine Defoe must be worse than is generally known to justify the re-signing of Robbie Keane.Surely there were more suitable signings available than the return of Keane.What will be the situation when Defoe recovers — we will be back in the same dilemma we were last season — two similar players chasing one position,with neither really satisfied.We should have gone the whole hog and signed Ardshavin- then at least we would have some craft as well as scoring ability.
I wonder why Liverpool sold him though. It leaves them with only two main strikers- Kuyt and Torres, and Kuyt has mostly been employed as a wing player at Anfield.