Robbie Keane's Celtic move may lift ailing game without helping him

02-03-2010

The text-message jokes have started already: "Robbie Keane signed for Celtic on loan for the rest of their season. He went home this morning." The uncanny resemblance of Keane's Celtic debut to that of his sake, Roy, in green and white is as striking as the amount of pressure now heaped upon Tony Mowbray.

Robbie's bow before an adoring travelling support in Kilmarnock last night ended in a 1-0 loss for Celtic. Roy Keane's first appearance in hoops, a 1-0 Scottish Cup defeat by Clyde, was later offset at least by the fact Celtic went on to win the 2005-06 Scottish Premier League. Today you will just, maybe just, find a bookmaker willing to give you odds on the title being wrestled from Rangers' firm grasp come May.

Though Robbie's shock arrival into Scottish football was rightly hailed as a major boost to the country's ailing game it may not, however, prove to be either the godsend required by Mowbray nor a particularly viable move for a striker who could soon start to wonder where it all went wrong; a £68,000-a-week contract notwithstanding, that is.

Among the number who would be delighted by Celtic's move for Keane would be Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the SPL. This season, an image of dwindling crowds and even lower fare north of the border has been impossible to ignore. That, added to the constant reference to the not-too-distant days when Henrik Larsson, Craig Bellamy, Mikel Arteta, Chris Sutton, Ronald de Boer, Artur Numan and Stilian Petrov plied their trade with the Old Firm meant the league badly needed a tonic.

Hence, a marquee signing such as Keane. And, in fairness, there was an edge surrounding the Kilmarnock encounter which hinted even Celtic's opponents had been lifted. If Keane can lift Scotland's deep football malaise, we will all be eternally grateful.

There is clear commercial value, too, for Celtic. Routinely this season, a third of Parkhead had lain empty for home matches; if Keane can add even 5,000 to the gate for the remainder of the season and see to it that a few extra shirts are punted, the short-term investment in his services – which stands in excess of £1m – would be easier to take.

That prospect, though, is being undermined by the league form of Mowbray's team. They lie 10 points behind Rangers with 15 games to play; a goal difference deficit of 20 effectively adds another point to that. The theory that Celtic and their fans will be content with Mowbray's rebuilding job and a "transitional season" – a worrying term at any time, for any support – is contradicted totally by Keane's arrival. He has been brought to Glasgow to save the championship.

Listening to the 29-year-old Keane speak late on Monday night, as he was paraded as a Celtic player, it was easy to infer that he has little interest in remaining in Glasgow beyond this summer. He also, pointedly, said he did not want to pull on his beloved green and white shirt when "at the age of 34, when I am struggling. I am in the peak of my career just now."

And yet, if this is the peak of Keane's career, one is entitled to ask what he is up to spending it at Kilmarnock and, as will be the case for a Scottish Cup tie on Sunday, Dunfermline, rather than England's Premier League. Is this a vanity project for a player who longs to be loved by a support once again?

Or has his career simply lost its way? A little over a year ago he was, after all, a £20m striker on Liverpool's books. But having returned to Tottenham in the transfer window last January for several millions pounds less than the amount Rafael Benítez had paid for him the previous summer, his career and form failed to reignite. Before last night, he had not played 90 minutes since September. He had managed one goal for Tottenham since November, that coming in a cup victory over Peterborough United.

Keane could, and maybe thinks he should, be making a high-profile visit to another of his former clubs, Leeds United, with Spurs tonight. His problem is that he may not have featured, at least not for any length of time. On four occasions in Spurs' last 14 games, Keane was an unused substitute.

Redknapp's public claim that the striker will be welcomed back to White Hart Lane conflicts with the amount of playing time Keane has been allowed. Too frequently the story surrounds Robbie Keane rather than the team he is playing for – on the most recent occasion, Redknapp was displeased to discover some of Tottenham's players had had a Christmas party in Ireland, reportedly organised by Keane.

It is tacit admission of Keane's fall from grace that no English club appear to have been serious about taking him on loan last month. Or, in the case of West Ham United, not for the money in question. This has all come about following his brief and ultimately ill-fated time at Liverpool where his goals-to-games ratio was 0.26.

One columnist in Ireland, where Keane remains a hero on account of his exploits for the international team, has reacted with astonishment that the striker has "swapped Formula One for a spin in the Wacky Races" and a place in a "two-team schoolyard skirmish".

That may well be the blunt truth of it. Rabble-rousing aside, unless Celtic can perform the unlikely in winning the league and Keane can become a wanted man at a serious level again, this loan deal will not be a mutually beneficial arrangement.