Robbie Keane

[fergalr]

Robbie Keane today delivered a simple message to the Republic of Ireland's emerging crop of youngsters: 'Go and enjoy yourselves'.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/2007/0207/ireland.html

Captain Robbie - did you enjoy yourself tonight?

[GavinZac]

The new thread button must go!

Seriously though, i read this today ina shane long interview and i thought, what a tosser acting the wise oul head. knowing flash boy shane long, he paid no attention anyway

[backstothewall]

Richard Dunne does this job every week for city, and is a centre back, a real captains position. Since he has got the armband at Spurs in Ledley King's absence results have been telling. It would be interesting to know exactly how many games Spurs have won when he is wearing the armband.

[kingdom hoop]

Richard Dunne does this job every week for city, and is a centre back, a real captains position. Since he has got the armband at Spurs in Ledley King's absence results have been telling. It would be interesting to know exactly how many games Spurs have won when he is wearing the armband.

to be fair i'd say the dip in spurs form is more on account of king's injury than robbie being the captain. i cant agree that a centre half should get preference just for the sake of it, but robbie definitely isnt working out. no problem with dunne as captain. is robbie too egotistical to be a captain?

[tricky_colour]

I think Dunne would make a good captain, at one point Keegan was on the verge of kicking him out of Man City, but he gave him a chance and he turned it round. A fine example to other players. He doesn't have a big ego and all that either. He came across well on Sky Sports News too

[Paddy Garcia]

Dunne has all the qualities you need. To be fair to Keane many strikers have felt constrained when appointed as captain. Free him up of the responsibility & we are more likely to see the best of him.

[DeNiro]

[QUOTE=fergalr;619112]Robbie Keane today delivered a simple message to the Republic of Ireland's emerging crop of youngsters: 'Go and enjoy yourselves'.


He's a true captain when it comes to enjoying himself.

[BradyIsMyHero]

Keane should have been taken off last night - just not at the races. Missed three sitters even when he got the ball - which was rare enough.

Not good enough for a captain. Has none of the necessary leadership characteristics

Honey Monster for captain

[Wolfie]

Not sure quite how heavily the captaincy hangs on Keanes neck. He appears to have completely abdicated any semblence of leading the team.

Shay Given for captain.

[highlight100]

Not sure quite how heavily the captaincy hangs on Keanes neck. He appears to have completely abdicated any semblence of leading the team.

Shay Given for captain.

I second that...

[green army]

should have shay given or richard dunne as captain.

[republicofwhite]

The new thread button must go!

Seriously though, i read this today ina shane long interview and i thought, what a tosser acting the wise oul head. knowing flash boy shane long, he paid no attention anyway

Why are you giving Shane Long abuse? How does he deserve that? "Flash Boy"----Ludicrous. Is it because he left Cork City to further his career? Nobody eased him in last night, they just left him out on a limb, no more than captain Robbie. You could see how frustrated he was.

[Leinster Lim]

It is time now for The Big Head to bow out me thinks.

[carloz]

I posted a thread here months ago saying 'Is it time tou drop Robbie Keane' and i received a lot of abuse fot it. A captains attitude rubs off on the rest of the team and his attitude ****oing stinks. He showboats, is always out of pisition, it seems he wants to run the show from midfield despite being a forward. All he does is give out to the referee non stop, wave his arms around and generally have a *****ish face on him. No more deserving of the captaincy as I am. I would like Carsley or Given as captain. It would take a man with balls to take the captaincy from Keane, Staunton does not have this

[Ordinary Fan]

Keane is captain and has been costing Korea but even now with all the "emerging talent" there is no-one to replace him.
He needs a manager who will give him the kick up the arse he desrves and who is not afraid to haul him off when he starts waving his arms and whining!

Come clean Robbie and play for Ireland?

[Condex]

Yip, I've been sick of him for many a year...

[carloz]

I got gutted here for starting a thread a few months back about dropping him. He has to learn that he cannot play with the stinking attitude he has

[carloz]

just taught id let people get a look at this again. I have never been a fan of him. His attitude really sickens me. Totally undeserving of the captaincy

[OneRedArmy]

Much like the famous Lionel Hutz quote from the Simpsons, replace "sack" with "shoot" and "is it" with "it is" and this thread title is starting to get there.

The fact that little clown has generated so much in transfer fees tells you all you need to know about modern football.

[sligoman]

Keane and Duff should be dropped for the next game. Both are over-rated and have been consistantly under performing for Ireland for the last couple of years or so.

[elroy]

I think alot of Keanes performances are due to the fact that he badly needs a forward of a decent stature beside him ie Quinn, Berbatov, Mido etc. Any time he plays alongside a similar player to him eg defoe, doyle, long etc he def doesnt perform nowhere near as good as he can.

[inexile]

big forward my swiss, he is not producing the goods, bellamy and kuyt, rooney and saha, larsson, henry and anyone, i think that to say he cannot play without a big forward beside him is indicative of how poor a player keane is, if he was any good he should be able to adapt, after all he has been playing football for around 20 years now

[barney]

Much like the famous Lionel Hutz quote from the Simpsons, replace "sack" with "shoot" and "is it" with "it is" and this thread title is starting to get there.

The fact that little clown has generated so much in transfer fees tells you all you need to know about modern football.

The fact that you could write that shows how much you know about the game...

[dodgycanadian]

well according to stan he thought “Robbie Keane played a captain’s part and ran his legs off. He showed flashes of brilliance and could have scored twice in the first half."
Jaysus... now to be a good captain you have to do loads of running around like an ejit. Could of scored twice?? The ****in 20 stone striker on my sunday league team could have scored five times against the load of dem bus drivers yesterday.

[OneRedArmy]

The fact that you could write that shows how much you know about the game...I agree.

[eirebhoy]

Keane and Duff should be dropped for the next game. Both are over-rated and have been consistantly under performing for Ireland for the last couple of years or so.
Will people ever leave it out on Duff. :) I can understand wanting Keane dropped but Duff does his best for us. He has lost his spark but he's still one of our best players. If he was playing better at club level I'd be worried but he's actually playing better for us than he is for his club.

[Marked Man]

Will people ever leave it out on Duff. :) I can understand wanting Keane dropped but Duff does his best for us. He has lost his spark but he's still one of our best players. If he was playing better at club level I'd be worried but he's actually playing better for us than he is for his club.

I'd drop duff before Keane myself. Agree that neither have played well for us in a long time.

[eirebhoy]

I'd drop duff before Keane myself. Agree that neither have played well for us in a long time.
I'm not sure who you're agreeing with but it's not me . :) Duff doesn't need to be at his 2004 best to be a good player. He's still a key player for us imo.

[fergalr]

Easy. Of course Cpt Robbie should be dropped - he shows no interest in breaking sweat for his country so why does he deserve to wear the green?

[liaml]

Duff is still our best outfield player. By a distance. Keane's attitude is spreading like a cancer throughout the team.

[backstothewall]

I have always felt a goalkeeper (and to a lesser extent a forward) has always got to look after himself more so than the rest of the team. He can't be worrying about anyone else on the pitch, and at any rate he can't exactly jog up to someone for a word in their ear. Centre backs have the whole game in front of them and in my opinion get a better perspective of how the game is going.

That coupled with performances, experience of doing it with City, and personality is why i would pick Dunne.

[eamo1]

on what s*ite keane said after the game,it was something like if you asked fans what would they want from this match theyd say theyd be delighted with the 3 points-or something like that.pure bulls*it.so now we are just satisfied with getting a win away to san marino is it?????????does it not matter how the team performs against part-timers and if the win they got was lucky????????as i said complete sh*te.KEANE TO GO AS CAPTAIN.maybe somebody will come in with ambition and drive like another keane use to have.

[The Legend]

Always liked Robbie Keane up until the moment that came out of his mouth... to me thats unforgiveable, who does he think we are?

[SeanDrog]

back page of the Herald.am and also in the Metro regarding keane talking crap about how we should be happy with 3 points and poeple who know football know its all about the 3 points. Tosser

[OwlsFan]

I am happy with 3 points. I was there and while the performance was abysmal, I am still happy with 3 points. I would have thought that goes without saying.

Keane is not a tosser either. Typical Irish attitude. He was way ahead of the other striker, Shane Long, on the night. Irish fans don't take very long to turn on their own. A number of fans around me were giving Keane a hard time. He certainly wasn't the worst player on the pitch. Sure he moans a lot at the ref but wouldn't influence my opinion of him. He put the effort in to no great effect I would admit but he still worked hard.

His form at club level has taken a dive so I don't expect him to play any better for us but I will stick by him and any other player who wears the green so long as they put in the effort and to hell with the begrudgers and tossers.

[Dodge]

So the fact he was captain and neither lead by example or vocally doesn't annoy you? IMO Keane is one of the biggest spoofers in football. An undoubted talent, he very rarely performs to a decent standard for club or country.

Your comparison to Long is off the mark too as Keane is a seasoned international (captain, no less) while Long was making his international debut wiht less than ten starts in grown up football behind him. I didn't think keane put in the effort you and the one chance I remember him having he shot tamely wide.

As for his interview he could've acknowledged his and the team's perfomance being awful (as Kilbane did) and apologised to the people who spent fortunes going over to watch him and his mates have a kickabout. But he chose to have a go at people who dared criticise them. If you think I'm a begrudger, fine but I think the description of tosser is being very kind to Keane. Very kind.

[shakermaker1982]

you'd think he'd be grateful he gets a start for us because you'd think it sure beats warming up the bench at Spurs.

[eirebhoy]

back page of the Herald.am and also in the Metro regarding keane talking crap about how we should be happy with 3 points and poeple who know football know its all about the 3 points. Tosser
He said this after the match. Something like "we didn't play well, etc. etc. but at the end of the day, if you ask anyone it's the 3 points that count".

[Dodge]

Thats not the radio interview I heard eirehoy

[eirebhoy]

Thats not the radio interview I heard eirehoy
Might aswell have been.

'I can understand their frustration because they pay a lot of good money to see good football and us do well, and they didn't see that,' said the Tottenham striker.

'But if you ask any fan, while they might be disappointed with the performance, they will be delighted with the win.'

- By win he means the 3 points obviously.

Actually this is where I got the "3 points" from:
"We're not happy with the performance ourselves, none of the lads are.

"It's not as we would have liked, and not what people expected, but sometimes in football these things happen. That was proven last night.

"The most important thing is the three points. That's what we came for, and we would have taken it before the game. We're thankful we got them.

"If you ask anybody in football, it's about winning, and that's what we did."

[centre mid]

Sounds like he has been misquoted.

Notwithstanding that, we shouldnt only be happy with 3 points, Three points were a given against San Marino, what we and the players should have been looking for was a performance. We should have been looking to put 4 or 5 passed what was a team that would struggle in our own league.

The fact that we couldnt break down this team early and have the game over at halftime is a major problem. The team has no direction from the coach.

Ireland came within 4 mins of the worst result in the history of Irish Football. I for one am not happy to just get the 3 points, like i said the 3 points were a given, what I wanted to see was coherent and professional performance.

[antrimgreen]

I think his comments are fair enough, he was sorry for the sh**e performance, and thankful that they got the win, just a shame that clown Stan didn't admitt the fact that his team were **** poor, and lucky enough to have scrapped the 3 points.

[Eirenua]

Both of them need to be dropped. Nobody should be guarenteed a game based on past performances, only current.
Don´t tell me what you did for me yesterday, tell me what you are going to do for me today.
Robbie does not know what position he is playing in.
Duff it took him 65 min to figure out how to get around a player.
They both have huge talent it just aint showing at the moment. They show no hunger, the younger guys do. Be honest we could not have done any worse fielding 11 new caps.

[old git]

Both of them need to be dropped. Nobody should be guarenteed a game based on past performances, only current.
Don´t tell me what you did for me yesterday, tell me what you are going to do for me today.
Robbie does not know what position he is playing in.
Duff it took him 65 min to figure out how to get around a player.
They both have huge talent it just aint showing at the moment. They show no hunger, the younger guys do. Be honest we could not have done any worse fielding 11 new caps.

would agree on both of them playing below par ... keane is an average striker will maybee score 1 in 3 chances,, never seems to give his 100% for ireland recently,, how he was ever made captain is a joke ... duff has also gone downhill living on past performances both must be on borrowed time .. only thing is staunton wont have the b*lls to drop them .. give mc geady / doyle a go when their both fit ,, :ball: :ball:

[joe_barry80]

He is no leader if he was he would questioning stauntons tactics he just afraid of loosing his place just like at spurs. I think he knows his scoring record will keep him in the team and also that fact that he's captain. He ran and ran the other night but nothing comes of it.the midfielders can`t read his runs. lack of communication.

[gustavo]

I would still have him in my team for the next game.

[fergalr]

I would still have him in my team for the next game.

If your team is an astropark outfit you can have him.

[eirebhoy]

duff has also gone downhill living on past performances both must be on borrowed time ..
I think it's the opposite tbh. We expect too much from Duff because of his past performances. He's not the player he was but he's a hell of a lot better than Kilbane.

[gustavo]

If your team is an astropark outfit you can have him.

No I would have him in the Ireland team for the Wales game.

[Wolfie]

No I would have him in the Ireland team for the Wales game.

Lets not confuse the two current issues in relation to Keane - 1) Should he be Captain and 2) should he be dropped.

As previously posted, I don't believe he is the right choice for Captain. He doesn't appear to have that sense of responsibility and drive that former Irish Captains have had, certainly around the elements of the role that make a difference.

Sometimes, the Captains role in certain teams has been as much an honourary / Figurehead role with a limited practical influence over how a team plays. For Ireland, however, it has always been an influential role.

Given and Dunne are more appropriate candidates for Captaining this team.

I'd start with Keane and Doyle up front against the Welsh. Hopefully removing the captaincy from him might sting him into action.