Reports linking Keane with City.

[George Costanza]

Would Parry sanction the deal though.

 

:laugh:

 

to attempt to anser that with a sensible disucssion -dragnn den pitching stylee. Trading in 2 bench wamers and a decent first team player for one of the best attacking talents in world football is a no brainer.

 

Sadly we'll probably get outbid or beaten to his signature by more 'ambitious' clubs.

[George Costanza]

he certainly would appear to be the missing link but I believe Bayern have recently valued him at 140 million or something equally ridiculous.

 

I would fly to liverpool and personally assist in the packing of keane's, kuyt's and babel's bags for a straight swap though.

 

 

(would later have second thoughts about letting babel go but just cross my fingers and hope that he never lives up to his promise)

 

It would represent an A-Rod type signing though :whistle:

 

We might have to see who replaces Gillett in the summer whether its remotely feasible or not.

[Spy Bee]

:laugh:

 

to attempt to anser that with a sensible disucssion -dragnn den pitching stylee.

 

And for that reason, I'm out.

[George Costanza]

And for that reason, I'm out.

 

fucking tight arse :blah

[Heinze]

ribery is boss.

 

ugly cunt though.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

Rafael Benitez fails to reassure Robbie Keane about his long-term future at Liverpool

 

Rafael Benitez has added to the uncertainty surrounding Robbie Keane's Liverpool future by sidestepping the opportunity to rule out the Irish forward being sold back to Tottenham before the transfer window closes on Feb 2.

 

By Mark Ogden

 

Last Updated: 8:21PM GMT 27 Jan 2009

 

Keane, omitted from the Liverpool squad for the FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Everton on Sunday, has been recalled to Benitez's travelling party for Wednesday's Premier League trip to Wigan.

 

But with Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp expressing an interest in the player, who left White Hart Lane for Anfield in a £20million transfer last summer, the prospect of Keane making a swift return to north London remains alive following Benitez's cryptic response to questions on Tuesday.

 

Although it is understood that Liverpool are reluctant to offload any players during the transfer window, Keane's failure to justify his price tag this season has left his future in peril.

 

But despite the player's determination to succeed at Liverpool, the club he supported as a boy, manager Benitez did little to pacify Keane's concerns. When asked if he would consider selling him in the next four days, Benitez said: "He is in the squad for the game at Wigan."

 

When asked if Tottenham had registered an interest, his reply was: "I will not talk about what they have done, but clearly he is in the squad because he can be an important player for us. For the next game and also for the rest of the season."

 

Benitez was then asked if he would kill all the speculation by saying he did not want to lose Keane. He replied: "Clearly, he is our player and he is in the squad for tomorrow. That's it."

 

Keane's hopes of starting for Liverpool at Wigan on Wednesday appear slim, with Benitez keen to retain Fernando Torres in the starting line-up.

 

Keane and Torres have yet to display signs of forging a real partnership, but should the former survive at Anfield beyond this transfer window, Benitez admits that he can still prove himself worthy of his price-tag.

 

He said: "Robbie knows he can play better. Everyone knows he is better than the one we are watching on the pitch sometimes. We know he's got quality in front of goal and can score, but sometimes it's a question of understanding with your team-mates and everything at the club. Sometimes it's confidence, but clearly he has potential.

 

"I'm talking about the future, not just the immediate, and hopefully he will be a key player for us and score the winning goal in the last game of the season to win trophies. I want to see him scoring goals.

 

"When we signed him, we knew he was a good player. When you sign them you have to give them time because some take longer than others. The price doesn't matter, the main thing is just that they work hard like the rest."

 

Benitez, meanwhile, has dismissed suggestions that Keane left Anfield ahead of the Everton game on Sunday after initially being named as substitute. He said: "Not true. I prepared the squad with Sammy Lee and Mauricio Pellegrino and Robbie wasn't in it."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/4362784/Rafael-Benitez-fails-to-reassure-Robbie-Keane-about-his-long-term-future-at-Liverpool.html

[ScottyT]

So his only hope of a run in the team is if he scores goals within the 65 minute time frame, and even then he's not guaranteed to stay on or keep his place.

 

Just sell the lad, it's embarrassing all this.

[Royal Family]

I'm sorry, Rafa, but you (or more accurately the club) don't spend £20m on someone and then talk about their "potential". Desperate stuff - almost Houllieresque in its baffling contradictions and lack of internal logic!

 

I think he needs to stop talking to the press. Take a deep breath, Rafa!

[Red Paul]

I'm not sure whether I buy that these comments by Benitez are him suggesting Keane is for sale.

 

It could just as likely be he's tired of all the speculation he gets everytime Keane's left on the bench, or not in the squad, etc. Maybe Rafas just fed up?

 

Obivously thats kind of disregarding everything else we've assumed about Rafa not wanting Keane, why he's not playing him, etc etc.

[Chinandeler Bong]

Spurs offer Lennon in swap deal for Keane - Transfers, Football - The Independent

 

Rafael Benitez is weighing up an offer from Tottenham Hotspur of Aaron Lennon or Jermaine Jenas plus cash in exchange for his disaffected striker Robbie Keane. In what would be one of the most remarkable transfers in recent history, Harry Redknapp would be prepared to let one of his two young English players leave in return for bringing Keane back to Spurs.

 

 

There are still many variables at play, the most important being whether Keane, 28, wants to move back to the club that he left for a deal worth around £20.3m in the summer. The deal would mean that Liverpool would not have to pay the remaining balance, estimated at £11m, due for Keane in the original transfer. The two clubs first raised the possibility on Monday night.

 

Keane is in the Liverpool squad for tonight's Premier League game against Wigan Athletic, although Benitez was evasive yesterday when asked whether he believed the Irishman had a future at Anfield. Keane is known to want to stay and fight for his place at the club but increasingly it would appear that Benitez is prepared to use him as a bargaining chip to bolster his squad as the title race warms up.

 

Redknapp has met with the Lyons striker Fred – short for Frederico Chaves Guedes – but the Brazilian, who is out of contract in the summer, is still only a secondary target after Keane. The 25-year-old has a decent goalscoring record but Keane would be Redknapp's first choice. The deal for Keane would be complicated even if the two clubs can agree on terms. It would rely upon Keane and either Lennon or Jenas being prepared to make the move.

 

Should Keane have wanted clarification on his future from Benitez, he will have been interested to know that the Liverpool manager was given five opportunities to dismiss any doubt over the striker's future yesterday but opted to leave the issue open-ended.

 

"Clearly he is our player and in the squad for tomorrow, and that's it," was all Benitez would say. When asked whether he wanted to sell him in this transfer window, Benitez said: "I want to see him scoring goals. I don't need to sell any players. We are in the title race, I want to keep all the players. We don't need to sell anyone."

 

That contrasted with Benitez's response when Manchester City's new owners' former figurehead, Sulaiman Al-Fahim, listed Fernando Torres among those players Sheikh Mansour al-Nahyan coveted, back in September. Benitez said yesterday: "We have had four or five approaches from different teams for players and the answer's been the same for them all – no. We want all our players. We don't want to sell. Robbie could be one of the ones we had an approach about, I won't say."

 

Lennon and Jenas had both been acquired by Tottenham on the basis that they fitted the club's former policy of buying young English talent. Lennon was bought from Leeds United by Frank Arnesen when he was the club's director of football for the budget price of £1m. The winger has interested Benitez before and he would be an appealing alternative to Dirk Kuyt and Yossi Benayoun on the right wing. Jenas is currently injured.

 

Keane was stunned to be told that David Ngog, the young French striker who is yet to start a league game, would replace him in the squad for Sunday's FA Cup derby with Everton. But Benitez insisted that he did not see fit to explain his thinking to Keane, one-to-one, at Liverpool's Melwood training ground. "I talk to all the players," Benitez said. "When you sign a player, the price doesn't matter. The main thing is just that they work hard like the rest. It was clear we had Ryan Babel, Dirk Kuyt, Fernando Torres, Gerrard playing as a second striker and also David Ngog, so we had lots of options if we needed to change.

 

"He [Keane] knows he can play better. Everyone knows he's better than the one we are watching on the pitch sometimes," the Liverpool manager said. "When you sign them you have to give them time. Some take longer than others. Some just need a month, others a year."

[ScottyT]

Terrible article that, just thrown together from thin air, and from a supposedly intelligent paper. As if Redknapp is going to let Lennon go, never mind swap him for Keane.

 

Swap deals just don't happen, especially none that ridiculous.

[Red Paul]

I heard it on radio merseyside before, Rafa is fucking him up, and playing with his mind, he praises Lucas & Dosenna when they play a half decent game, yet nothing with Keane.

 

 

You score against Arsenal, bag two v bolton thats 3 in 2 then dropped.

 

What is rafa affraid of?

 

If Keane plays on and scores more, would the Barry bollocks he keeps coming up with hold water.

 

Keane scores more goals if not dropped, Xabi carries on his form, where is rafa's argument?

 

Rafa encouraged Keane plenty at the beginning of the season from what I remember.

 

Again, (and with the above article from the independent) I don't buy Rafa's doing it just to be vindictive. I think once he's decided which players to use in a game, he gets annoyed when he's constantly questioned, and THEN he comes out with these comments which can be interpreted as vindictive.

 

It was the same with Crouch and Voronin last year. He often played Voronin instead of Crouch but come the end of the season he wanted to keep Crouch and he sold Voronin. He uses those players he feels has the attributes to win a particular game.

[SpeedyG]

I heard it on radio merseyside before, Rafa is fucking him up, and playing with his mind, he praises Lucas & Dosenna when they play a half decent game, yet nothing with Keane.

 

 

How the fuck have we ended up with all these feebleminded players that need pats on the head from the boss or else they'll go to pieces and not be able to hit the ball when in front of goal. Are we a girls team or something?

 

BTW I think you'll find Benitez only praises players when the crowd get onto them. Unless their name is Kuyt.

[Torvald Utne]

How the fuck have we ended up with all these feebleminded players that need pats on the head from the boss or else they'll go to pieces and not be able to hit the ball when in front of goal. Are we a girls team or something?

 

BTW I think you'll find Benitez only praises players when the crowd get onto them. Unless their name is Kuyt.

 

it is quite pathetic.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

Rafa encouraged Keane plenty at the beginning of the season from what I remember.

 

Again, (and with the above article from the independent) I don't buy Rafa's doing it just to be vindictive. I think once he's decided which players to use in a game, he gets annoyed when he's constantly questioned, and THEN he comes out with these comments which can be interpreted as vindictive.

 

It was the same with Crouch and Voronin last year. He often played Voronin instead of Crouch but come the end of the season he wanted to keep Crouch and he sold Voronin. He uses those players he feels has the attributes to win a particular game.

 

Rafa's treatment of first Crouchy, then Babel and now Keane all has been exactly the same.

 

Play them on occasions, let them score one or two and leave them on the bench for the next month.

 

Imagine what that would do to your confidence and your enthusiasm especially when you see Dirk putting in shite performance after shite performance and then playing in the next game.

[Sinos]

I heard it on radio merseyside before, Rafa is fucking him up, and playing with his mind, he praises Lucas & Dosenna when they play a half decent game, yet nothing with Keane.

 

 

You score against Arsenal, bag two v bolton thats 3 in 2 then dropped.

 

What is rafa affraid of?

 

If Keane plays on and scores more, would the Barry bollocks he keeps coming up with hold water.

 

Keane scores more goals if not dropped, Xabi carries on his form, where is rafa's argument?

 

What was the score against Newcastle?

[Torvald Utne]

i don't think players really get dropped anymore, it's called rested these days...

[ScottyT]

What was the score against Newcastle?

 

That doesn't justify the poor treatment of a player for your own means.

 

Newcastle were pathetic anyway. How many did Kuyt score?

[Hermes]

Did he say after bolton "RK played well today scored 2 goals thats 3 in 2 and his confidence is high we should now start seeing more goals from robbie"

 

No, he dropped him

 

..............and then explains his omission from the squad on Sunday in favour of Ngog. "Ngog scored two goals for the reserves this week". If it wasn't our manager speaking it would be comical.

[Carradona]

Someone rep atk for me.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

 

Its fucking personal can you fucking idiots not see it.

 

 

This is what it basically boils down to.

 

If you question or oppose Rafa, you're fucked.

[Sinos]

That doesn't justify the poor treatment of a player for your own means.

 

Newcastle were pathetic anyway. How many did Kuyt score?

 

7 goals in 23 starts says Rafa has every right to drop the useless cunt.

 

You can blame Rafa for many things but RK's spineless attitude is not one of them.

[Sinos]

5-0, how many would keane have scored?.

 

So if torres scores 3 in 2 and is dropped/or injured and we win 5-0 v newcastle we do the same?

 

Its fucking personal can you fucking idiots not see it.

 

Complete fucking wankers on the internet, go the fucking game and listen.

 

How the fuck would you know how many matches I attend?

[Guest simon]

Because Rafa didn't want him. Its wrong and makes me think twice about Rafa i know he is a great manager and i am 100% behind him. But the way he treats Keane is just wrong. We will have trouble signing big players because of this i fear.

[Ted]

rafa's afraid keane will play well and the fans will want him to play more. We can't have that.

 

By the way, rafa is getting off really fucking lightly over this bollocks. It's alright to call keane for everything and write him off as 'a slight error' but that was £20m for fuck sake. How the fuck can people, rafa included, be so fuching blasé about this? And he wants full transfer control? Get to fuck. He should be feeling lucky no one at the top gives a fuck enough to bring him to task over the fucking poor buys he made in the summer.