Tag Archives: robbie keane - Page 2

Give Keane a chance

Posted by on May 26, 2009 18 comments

Robbie Keane might have been struggling for form since arriving back from Liverpool but I’m confident he’ll be back to his best next season. He didn’t play much football whilst there and coming straight back into the Spurs side playing every week has probably been more difficult for him to adjust to than we all thought it would.

Some sections of the press and fans seem to be getting on his back a bit and quite frankly I find that alarming. Even if his football hasn’t been quite up to scratch since his return, what he has given us in bite and determination has more than made up for that. No pointy shouty bloke in the early part of the season was largely to blame for our lack of points.

No matter what he says publicly, I’m sure the Liverpool experience will have knocked his confidence a bit. His demeanour on the pitch might not show it but there are probably niggling doubts in the back of his mind as to whether he did the right thing coming back. The appeal was safety and familiarity but it was never going to be a simple process going backwards.

The goal at Ainfield on Sunday will have laid some demons to rest for the Irishman and I’m confident that with a pre season under his belt, he’ll be back fresh and better than ever. The likelihood is that Harry will bring in another top class striker and I think Keane thrives on competition for places as he proved when keeping Defoe out the side in his previous tenure with us. He played some of his best football during that period and can do so again come August.

Everton, The Toffees, The People’s Club

Posted by on May 8, 2009 25 comments

Why can’t any of our recent managers have come up with a nickname like the people’s club?! In the same way The Rock was the people’s champion, Everton are a side that most football fans seem to like and have respect for (Liverpool fans not included obviously).

He may look like a nutcase, have regular head butt matches with Duncan Ferguson, and put players in torturous submission holds when they make mistakes, but David Moyes is certainly one of the best managers in Premiership history.

With very limited resources, he has moulded Everton into a consistent and hard working side that always achieve more than they should on paper. He doesn’t often make a bad signing and takes a punt on players that other managers wouldn’t. Tim Cahill, Phil Neville and Mikel Arteta show what a talent he has for picking players. I’m obviously happy Spurs have more spending power in the transfer market but I wish they could follow Everton’s lead and be a bit more astute. It would be no surprise to see Moyes nick David Bentley off us for £4m and turn him back into a decent player. He’s also recently been linked with Pavlyuchenko, another he’d no doubt be able to get much more out of then Tottenham have been able to.

Harry Redknapp has no fresh injury concerns and I’d be surprised if Defoe doesn’t feature. Robbie Keane has been out of sorts in recent games but I don’t expect that to last long and I don’t expect Harry to leave him out the starting line up either.

Spurs have a very solid record against Everton and we haven’t lost in our last 4 visits to Goodison Park but the Toffees did beat us at the Lane earlier in the season. On form, I’d be happy with a draw but we need a win to keep the pressure on in the battle for that 7th spot and history is on our side. We have won here 7 times in the Premier League and I wouldn’t bet against us making it 8 wins tomorrow.

Keanes are no good for Sunderland

Posted by on March 8, 2009 6 comments

What a difference a Keane makes eh? The best result I could see us getting yesterday was a draw, but when we went 1-0 down so early, I thought Sunderland were likely to sit on it and make it very hard for us to score. That they did but the lads didn’t roll over or lose concentration as they had been doing in most away games this season.

If you look at our games at Bolton, Wigan, West Brom and Newcastle, we were an easy touch. With Palacios and particularly Robbie Keane in the mix, we are a totally different proposition away from the Lane as the performances at Hull and Sunderland demonstrate.

Credit to Sunderand, they are a hard side to beat under Ricky Sbragia, and I don’t see them getting sucked into the relegation picture.

Aston Villa is another tough away fixture for us next week but Villa do seem to be having a mini blip at the moment. I’m sure Marin O’Neill will be targeting the home game against Tottenham as the perfect time to get their Champions League challenge back on track. Unfortunately for him, it will be a tougher game than he thought it might be a few weeks ago.

Hull v Tottenham – Pain Preview

Posted by on February 23, 2009 3 comments

Team News
Robbie Keane, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vedran Corluka are all back after being cup-tied against Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup.

Hull have Ian Ashbee, Daniel Cousin, Caleb Folan and Anthony Gardner back in contention but Craig Fagan is out with a knee injury.

Current Form
Spurs have only won 1 of the last 9 league games and have not picked up a point away from home since beating West Ham on December 8th.

Hull haven’t won in their last 9 league games and have only won 1 game in the league from their last 16 played.

Head to Head
Not an awful lot to go on here but Hull won at White Hart Lane earlier in the season by one goal to nil courtesy of a Geovanni free kick.

Conclusion
Both teams are in shocking form and both sides will be targeting this fixture as a must win. Hull started the season so well but they now look to have relegation written all over them with only one victory in the last 16 league games.

Spurs aren’t faring an awful lot better with only one win in 9 and some of the player will likely have one eye on Sunday’s cup final against Manchester United but with the big guns including Robbie Keane back in the squad, I fancy Spurs to leave the KC Stadium with all 3 points.

Best Bets
I like the look of 2-0 to Spurs at a generous looking 10/1 with Betfred.

Robbie Keane to score first is also a fair price at 11/2.

Did anyone see Wigan on Saturday?

Posted by on February 2, 2009 12 comments

Those boys are immense. If our players showed 50% of their heart and desire, we’d probably be in the title race! Figueroa was inspirational throwing his body in the way of anything and everything. Compare that to David Bentley attempting to body pop on the goal line when all he needed to do was stand on the post.

It looks highly likely that Robbie Keane is going to be a Spurs player again by 5pm this afternoon. I was hoping the weather would stop the deal going through but no such luck. The little Irish gypsy dreamed of picking up the Carling Cup and then luckily remembered another dream he had to play for Liverpool once they came sniffing round. I wonder if he will recall yet another dream he had as a young Irish gypsy in his caravan where he re signs for Spurs, no doubt he will.

I know we are a complete joke as always but I really do believe Arsenal are in serious trouble. By all accounts, they have refused to pay Arshavin anything like the money he is currently getting at Zenit. As far as I can make out, it appears Arsene never wanted to sign him in the first place and it’s all been a big stunt to keep the fans happy. You’re telling me his wages weren’t agreed before travelling for a medical today? This must come as a big blow for players like Fabregas and I can’t see him sticking around after the summer. At least we aren’t the only laughing stock in North London…