Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has admitted he never understood the rationale behind the club signing striker Robbie Keane in 2008.
The Republic of Ireland hero made the switch from Tottenham Hotspur to Anfield under Rafael Benitez’s watch, but just six months later he was back at White Hart Lane.
Carragher remains dumbfounded: “I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t understand why we bought Robbie Keane in the first place,” he told The 42. “What I mean is: Robbie Keane was a top player for Tottenham. But the season before Steven Gerrard was playing up alongside [Fernando] Torres as the number 10. We had done it for the second half of the season and I think Stevie set up 20 goals.
“It was a surprise to be honest when he came in. And Robbie Keane’s problem was that Torres was injured a lot. So he ended up playing centre forward and Stevie was behind him. And probably [ideally] you’re thinking of Robbie just floating around Torres.
“Him and Benitez just never clicked, straight away.”
OPINION
The Keane signing just never really worked, did it? The Irishman is undoubtedly one of the finest frontmen the Premier League has ever seen, but he simply didn’t settle at Liverpool. Carragher seems to think it was a matter of tactics, and that Keane ended up performing a role that was different to the one he was brought in to play. There probably is a bit of truth in that. However, his last line, about Keane and Benitez’s relationship, is also telling. The two men seemingly never really understood each other, and that disconnect with the manager is always going to affect a player. Keane managed seven goals in 28 games for the Reds, which isn’t as desperate as we all seem to remember his spell at the club being. The problem was he arrived for a big fee of £19million, which was a really hefty sum 11 years ago, and just never caught fire in the same way that he had at Spurs. It’s a shame, because a hard-working, goalscoring forward like him could have been a big hit at Anfield. However, it simply didn’t work out that way.
