Robbie Keane

[Busangaz]

He just announced that he's leaving LA Galaxy.
On his FB statement he says:
"I believe that now is the right time for a new challenge as I look towards the next chapter of my playing career. I still feel as fit and sharp as ever and I am looking forward to my next adventure. Having now retired from international football I am ready to focus everything I have on one last major challenge in club football"

I know he's 36 but he's still a great finisher, you don't lose that with age. Pace was never really a part of his game, he was one of the best in his prime at finding space and punishing defences for letting an eye off him. I also think he's better than anything we currently have. He'd be a positive influence around the changing room too. Plus with his connections to Wolves, Matt Murray being his best mate and the Paul Lambert connection (Roy Keane) I think we could be the "challenge" he's looking for. Us or Shamrock Rovers in Ireland, which is his hometown club and where Damian Duff and Stephen McPhail ended their careers.

Would you have him back? What are the chances of it happening?

 

[Deleted Cyber]

He just announced that he's leaving LA Galaxy.
On his FB statement he says:
"I believe that now is the right time for a new challenge as I look towards the next chapter of my playing career. I still feel as fit and sharp as ever and I am looking forward to my next adventure. Having now retired from international football I am ready to focus everything I have on one last major challenge in club football"

I know he's 36 but he's still a great finisher, you don't lose that with age. Pace was never really a part of his game, he was one of the best in his prime at finding space and punishing defences for letting an eye off him. I also think he's better than anything we currently have. He'd be a positive influence around the changing room too. Plus with his connections to Wolves, Matt Murray being his best mate and the Paul Lambert connection (Roy Keane) I think we could be the "challenge" he's looking for. Us or Shamrock Rovers in Ireland, which is his hometown club and where Damian Duff and Stephen McPhail ended their careers.

Would you have him back? What are the chances of it happening?

In a heart beat as a player coach

 

[Siggy]

I would take him back, he is totally different to what we have and scores goals. Not sure how much he will have left but he should still be way too good for this division.

 

[Tony Towner]

Unless a coaching role was involved I wouldn't take him. He's 36 and this season has gone, I'd rather build for next. Plus I don't believe in fairytales and if he wanted to come back he's had his opportunities before including in the PL when he chose Villa instead.

I would imagine he has Shanghai in mind rather than Shifnal anyway.

 

[EdgeOfTheAlps]

Unless a coaching role was involved I wouldn't take him. He's 36 and this season has gone, I'd rather build for next. Plus I don't believe in fairytales and if he wanted to come back he's had his opportunities before including in the PL when he chose Villa instead.

I would imagine he has Shanghai in mind rather than Shifnel anyway.

The air is better is Shifnal

 

[The Saturday Boy]

As far as I know he has no coaching experience, why would that make him a good player coach?

 

[Jolemai]

50+ caps. Guess he's been speaking to Lampard.

 

[arklowolf]

Wolves should have broken the bank to keep Keane. Streets ahead of anything else we've had in the last twenty years, but that's wolves for you. He would have got us promoted, no doubt in my mind.
No point in him coming back now though, his international career is over because he can't get a shirt for Ireland, that says it all.
As for coaching? might as well get Bully in if you think Keane has got the gumption to be a coach

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Sadly keeping him was just not an option. We were two years into Jack not putting any further funding into the club, we could only bring players in when we brought income in and by the summer of 1999 the squad was alarmingly threadbare. He wanted to leave anyway, he'd been a senior international for a year already and was clearly aware of the interest in him from Premier League clubs. So it was a case of keep a player who didn't want to stay and run with a squad of about 16 senior players, or sell him and build a squad (which we actually did fairly well with, we failed to repeat the trick a year later when we sold Akinbiyi).

In an ideal world we'd have kept him AND spent £5m or so on the squad that summer, but it was an either/or choice. You can't break the bank if the funding simply isn't there. Same as when Lescott went - except we didn't even spend that money on new players to the same extent, it went towards paying the wage bill for a year.

 

[arklowolf]

Sadly keeping him was just not an option. We were two years into Jack not putting any further funding into the club, we could only bring players in when we brought income in and by the summer of 1999 the squad was alarmingly threadbare. He wanted to leave anyway, he'd been a senior international for a year already and was clearly aware of the interest in him from Premier League clubs. So it was a case of keep a player who didn't want to stay and run with a squad of about 16 senior players, or sell him and build a squad (which we actually did fairly well with, we failed to repeat the trick a year later when we sold Akinbiyi).

In an ideal world we'd have kept him AND spent £5m or so on the squad that summer, but it was an either/or choice. You can't break the bank if the funding simply isn't there. Same as when Lescott went - except we didn't even spend that money on new players to the same extent, it went towards paying the wage bill for a year.

All true of course.
Unfortunately we are (were?)seemingly a club with limited ambition and/or badly run.
We have the support 20-25k regularly.
We've underperformed.
Let's hope Lambert isn't just here for the ride, unlike several of our previous managers.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Were rather than are.

The new owners have clearly moved the ambitions on. No results yet, but rest assured, pootling around in this shit-tip of a division is not on their agenda.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Pretty sure that a 36 yr old striker is not what we need, regardless of his history with us or his start in the game