KENWRIGHT CALLS VITAL FOR KEANE
MICHAEL KEANE couldn’t be in a more different frame of mind today than he was 12 months ago.
Back then he was part of an Everton defence shipping goals at an alarming rate.
His dream move from Burnley to Goodison Park was turning into a nightmare, with a 4-1 defeat at Southampton last November completing a torrid six-match spell in which Everton conceded 20 goals.
Keane was labelled a £30m flop by fans unimpressed with their new recruit, pundits were slaughtering him and suddenly, having been on course for a World Cup call-up, Keane became an England outcast.
Then a series of phone calls from Everton chairman Bill Kenright hauled him out of his personal hell and, one year on, the 25-year-old’s in line for his fifth England cap in tomorrow night’s friendly against USA at Wembley.
“I’m delighted to be back,” said Keane.
“It’s been more than a year and it has obviously been tough.
“There were a few months when things were going really badly and I did not really want to go and do things out of the house.
“We had three managers (at Everton) and it was difficult. It’s just really sad when one is sacked and you see how upset they are.
“You feel to blame for people losing their jobs and the fans being unhappy. That gets to you and makes you feel guilty.”
Kenwright saw how much Keane was suffering and intervened.
“He called me two or three times at the low points when people were saying what they were saying about me because I wasn’t playing well,” he said.
“Just to tell me how much he believed in me and that he had faith that I could become one of the greats of the club.
“To have that support from the chairman, I can’t thank him enough.
“Although it wasn’t a great year, I took a lot from it. I learnt a lot about myself, I’m probably mentally stronger and developed that thick skin because a lot gets said about you when things aren’t going well.
“You’ve just got to learn to deal with it and try to not let it affect you, and that’s something I can take from it. Now I can sit here in the England camp and says I’ve come through that.
“If anything goes wrong in the future I can look back at that and think, ‘I’ve dealt with this before and hopefully it won’t get as bad as that again’.”
Having begun the season in bright form it looked as if Keane’s world would turn dark again when he suffered a hairline skull fracture during the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth in late August.
It happened after a collision with team-mate Idrissa Gueye.
“The first 10 days I couldn’t do anything – sitting up, sitting down,” he said.
“The room was spinning, I couldn’t watch TV or anything like that.
“It was tough but once the first few weeks passed it started to heal quite quickly and before I knew it was playing against Arsenal.”
But Keane insists he had no fears about returning to action.
“I just had to throw myself in the deep end and start heading it again, and luckily I have been fine and haven’t had any knocks since,” he said.
“You can’t hesitate, especially as a defender, because you will get punished, especially in the Premier League and the players you are against. You can’t hesitate – and I don’t plan to.”