Robbie In Shake-Up To Win His Spurs Again
Robbie Keane (centre) celebrates Maccabi Tel Aviv’s title triumph in 2024 with Mike Stowell (left) and other backroom colleagues.
Is Robbie Keane auditioning for the forthcoming vacancy at his old club, Tottenham?
Might we be within a few months of seeing him stride back to a corner of North London in which he is so popular?
Unless we are very much mistaken, the job prospects of the one-time Boy Wonder of Molineux – with particular reference to the chance of him being appointed at the stricken former giants – are on the rise.
No less a commentator than Henry Winter included Keane in the conversation that circled around the club following the crisis stirred up by Igor Tudor’s highly damning goalkeeper substitution in the first half of the recent Champions League thrashing by Atletico Madrid.
The former Times chief sports writer clearly thought Tudor might be fired within hours and considered the 45-year-old Irishman a worthy name among the list of possible successors.
But he pointed out that Keane had European duties at the time – commitments that came to an end last week with his club Ferencvaros’s 4-0 defeat in Braga in the second leg of the Europa League play-offs after they had won 2-0 at home.
Even so, he has overseen excellent journeys in continental competition for three seasons in a row, first to the last 16 of the Conference League with Maccabi Tel Aviv two years ago and then to the first knockout round with Ferencvaros 12 months later.
And, hand in hand with that profile-raising, he is aiming to become a championship winner for the third successive season, with reigning champions Ferencvaros currently second in the table and three points behind leaders Gyor in Hungary’s top flight, with a match in hand.
Keane, we understand, has already made it clear he would not be willing to join Spurs on a temporary basis. Personal pride in not wanting to be seen as a caretaker might partly explain that line of thinking but so would the importance of the domestic run-in he faces in Eastern Europe.
The prospect of going to Tottenham in the summer, though, with time to plan for the future, whatever division that might entail, would hold obvious appeal for anyone with a White Hart Lane background like his.
He played many more games for Spurs – and scored many more goals – than he did for any of the other blue-chip clubs he served in a stellar career launched by his time in Wolves’ first team from 1997 to 1999.
The latest link between Keane and Spurs comes at a time when the North Londoners continue to slide towards the indignity of relegation – while fierce arch-rivals Arsenal home in towards the Premier League title.
Carl Robinson…..a flourishing reputation in the dug-out.
And the story, complicated by the bereavement suffered by Tudor at the weekend, bubbles away while one of Keane’s close Wolves pals from more than a quarter of a century ago, Carl Robinson, is reported to have had talks about becoming St Mirren manager.
The ex-Welsh international has not yet held a no 1 position in Britain but was part of Wayne Rooney’s backroom team at Birmingham and has since been assistant boss at Atalanta United.
Before landing in America – a country in which he served significant parts of his long playing career – he also also had senior posts in Canada and Australia.
St Mirren are two places off the bottom of the Scottish Premiership and are manager-seeking after Carlo’s namesake, Stephen Robinson, was tempted to move to Aberdeen.