ROBBIE WAS MY DREAM SIGNING, SAYS SCOTS BOSS
Teenage Keane is still most talented player I have ever managed, reflects Strachan
THE day Coventry City paid £6million for a teenage Robbie Keane, the club’s manager was in bed, sweating and hallucinating. ‘ The chairman bought him,’ Gordon Strachan recalls now. ‘I had some sort of virus at the time.
‘I had something terrible wrong with me and was in bed for two days. The chairman must have spoken to me when the virus first started.
‘But after coming through it after 48 hours I said to him: “I had a dream we’d signed Robbie Keane”.
‘He said: “We are signing him, it will be done in the next couple of days,” and I said: “Oh Jesus”.’
The year was 1999. A £6m fee for a 19-year- old was a substantial sum of money; a British record for a teenager. And, for Scotland’s current manager, a potential millstone around his neck.
The hype surrounding Keane was substantial. His then Wolves manager Mark McGhee — now Strachan’s Scotland assistant — was so impressed by his explosive potential in the Molineux youth team, he handed the young protégé three pay rises in three months.
People started throwing cash his way. Keane moved to Coventry and would become an expensive bauble for some of England’s — and Europe’s — top clubs. An obligatory must-have up there with a club mascot. The list of teams is dazzling.
After a year at Coventry, Marcello Lippi paid £13m to take him to Inter Milan. There was a loan at Leeds United and a six-month stay at Liverpool book-ended by two spells at Tottenham. There was Celtic as well, of course. Now he is in Major League Soccer with LA Galaxy. He has fewer medals and silverware than he might — should — have had, but a CV showing goals by the bucketload.
At 34, a haul of 65 in 139 caps for the Republic of Ireland is remarkable; the reason he will start for Martin O’Neill in t he Aviva Stadium tomorrow night.
He was a s urprise absentee from the Irish s t arti ng l i ne - up when they lost at Celtic Park in November. To have any remaining prayer of reaching Euro 2016, O’Neill must win tomorrow.
In Strachan’s mind, Keane, who played his first match since early April for LA Galaxy on Sunday, will start this time.
‘I have known Robbie since he was a boy,’ said the Scotland boss. ‘I bought him when he was 19.
‘What a gifted, natural talent he was. But he worked at it. A great professional.
‘What struck me was how clever he was at that age. How he knew where there was a weakness in a defence or a player.
‘Add that to his incredible pace over 15 yards. His bravery on the ball. His agility.
‘I just thought he was wonderful to watch.
‘The coaches used to come away from training going “wooof, Jesus”. I remember (former Coventry defender) Paul Williams laughing one day when Robbie stuck his mate Richard Shaw on his backside.
‘Willo was laughing so much we had to stop the game, it was fantastic. The boy just had so much natural ability.’
As a manager with Coventry, Southampton, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland, Strachan has witnessed young players of talent and potential.
Aiden McGeady — another who will start for the Republic tomorrow — was mouthy, opinionated, a thorn in his side, but explosively talented.
That Strachan still regards Keane as the most gifted young player he has handled, then, is a testament to the impression he made. Asked why, the Scots boss added: ‘Because of the whole package, which was j ust fantastic. He used to do things which were incredible. ‘ He’d do things I’d been trying to teach kids for two or three years. ‘He did this thing where he’d come in for the ball and then spin in behind. After watching him do it a couple of times I said to him: “Who taught you how to do that?”, thinki ng it must have been a youth team coach. But he said: “Nobody”, and I was like: “OK, right, good”. Well done to the Academy.’
There are no special plans in place for Keane or anyone else in the Irish team. Strachan has always been a zonal rather than man-marking manager. Starving wide men like McGeady, Robbie Brady and Seamus Coleman of a chance to throw crosses into the area is as important as how the Scots defence deals with them.
These teams played a match high in intensity and tempo in November. The return will be a similar affair. There is little or nothing Strachan or O’Neill can do to surprise the other.
‘You are always on your toes when you are a manager,’ added Strachan. ‘You never think: “I know what the team is going to be”. But it’s not a big thing.
‘They have a squad where there are three or four players they can bring in that would not change the quality of the team.
‘As a manager you say: “Well, where is there a weakness?”. So you pick players who you might think suits them for that game.
‘So I am looking at 13 players who he will pick 11 from. I don’t think any of us will be too far wrong if we picked those 13 players.’
If there was a surprise the last time they met, it was the benching of Keane. He played the last 12 minutes but, by then, Shaun Maloney had scored a sublime goal.
Celtic Park barely noticed Keane’s arrival. It is unlikely he will be so nondescript this time.
Scotland hope he will be conspicuous by his absence from the game, but cannot count on it.
Keane is no longer the 19-year-old kid with explosive pace and a boxful of tricks. But he can still do Scotland substantial damage tomorrow night. Strachan has a historic knowledge of how he plays and the weaknesses he thrives on, but that offers no guarantee of stopping him. It will come down, in the end, to his defenders and how they play.
‘They have seen enough of Robbie to know what they are going to get,’ observed the Scots boss. ‘And they have seen enough of (Jon) Walters and (Shane) Long.
‘Sometimes you have to do a lot of individual analysis. But we know each other so well. I don’t think there will be much in the game.
‘If you look at the last game there was nothing in it — apart from a wonderful goal.’
The whole package was fantastic. He’d do things that were just incredible