The fans might not be all that keen but Robbie remains one of Trapattoni’s ‘go-to’ favourites

LA Galaxy striker looks sharp again and is Ireland’s best hope for goals as they bid to reach knock-out stage
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Miguel Delaney7 June 2012

For a man who wasn’t prolific for Ireland, Tony Cascarino hit the target recently when discussing one of the country’s current forwards. Or, rather, the country’s greatest ever forward. Not that you’d think it from the comments that come his way.

“Robbie [Keane] has a love-hate relationship with the fans,” Cascarino told L’Equipe. “He’s had difficult moments with them.”

Obviously, that’s quite a curious thing for a player who has supplied his country with so many glorious moments. Although Keane is the highest international scorer on these islands with 53 goals in 117 caps, it’s not just the quantity of those strikes. It’s the quality of them.

Since maturing in the 2002 World Cup campaign, Keane, 31, has scored in pretty much all of Ireland’s big games — from three in that World Cup to the play-off against Estonia that secured a first qualification in 10 years.

Yet, for all those cheers, he is one of the first to be jeered. One of the most frequent moans by the home fans comes after Keane has thrown his hands into the air following a move that fails to work. Of course, it should be stated the Irish captain has as many fervent supporters as those who are put off by him.

He is also popular in dressing rooms, commonly described as a “player’s player”, as well as possessing fame — and therefore a fear factor — that the rest of the team don’t have.

But the surprisingly aggravated nature of the debate perhaps hints at something deeper, as Cascarino intimated.

He said: “He changed and, for some people, he was no longer the same guy as before. Money transformed him.”

Certainly, one Keane appearance came to personify a nadir in the country’s relationship with the team after the shambolic Steve Staunton era.

Once Staunton was sacked in 2007 after a turbulent 21 months in charge of the team, Keane went on Irish TV’s Late, Late Show and said players may stop wanting to appear for Ireland if the fans remained so negative. It was mistimed and misplaced. And, perhaps predictably as the team’s figurehead, Keane then came to define another debate: that regarding Giovanni Trapattoni’s entire approach.

A common argument was that the Italian should modernise and play three in midfield rather than such a rigid 4-4-2. Trapattoni’s response, though, was that would necessitate dropping Keane as the No 10 — an impossibility.

Complicating all of this, however, was that Trapattoni’s first few seasons with Ireland coincided with the worst club form of Keane’s career.

Shortly after the 73-year-old took the Ireland job, Keane accepted a move to Liverpool, struggled to settle and then moved back to White Hart Lane, only to find his role substantially diminished.

Most notably, Keane looked off the pace and sluggish in the early Euro 2012 qualifying defeat against Russia. Except, throughout all of that, he kept scoring. As with Trapattoni’s system, the end justified the means.

And, now, he suddenly looks sharp again. Far from damaging his international career — as Cascarino also suggested — the move to LA Galaxy, where he has scored seven goals, and exact timing of the US season may well leave him at his freshest for Euro 2012.

Quite simply, no other Irish player looks so likely to hit the target.

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