FOOTBALL

LIVERPOOL COMPLETE KEANE DEAL

Striker Keane has made the switch

Monday July 28,2008

By Nicola McCafferty for express.co.uk

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LIVERPOOL have completed the signing of Robbie Keane in a deal worth £20.3million.

The 28-year-old completed his medical earlier today and agreed a deal worth around £80,000 per week.

The Tottenham striker - who has been in negotiations with Reds boss Rafa Benitez for weeks - tied up the final stages of the deal over the weekend.

He is expected to join the rest of the Liverpool squad in Spain ahead of Wednesday's friendly against Villarreal.

But the fall-out with Tottenham over the transfer continued tonight following more comments from Daniel Levy.

Spurs chairman Levy has dropped his complaint against Liverpool to the Premier League but insisted he did not “regard it as a transfer deal” due to the way the deal was conducted.

He said: “I was incredibly disappointed when I first heard, not only that Liverpool had been working behind the scenes to bring Robbie to Anfield, but that Robbie himself wanted to go and he submitted a transfer request to this effect.”

The move to Anfield will be the fifth big transfer of his career, with Keane having previously played for Wolves, Coventry, Inter Milan and Leeds.

Keane has become Benitez’s number one summer target over recent weeks, with the need to replace Peter Crouch more important that pursuing the complicated, protracted, move for Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry.

With the prospect of Xabi Alonso now remaining at Anfield, Liverpool may now decline to respond to Villa boss Martin O’Neill’s demand that they make their intentions regarding Barry clear.

Liverpool’s response is that Villa have turned down four bids for Barry and the Merseysiders will not meet an £18million valuation.

Benitez will now be unwilling to allow full-back Steve Finnan, a possible makeweight in a deal for Barry, to leave the club.

That is the consequence of new signing Philipp Degan being expected to need surgery on a groin injury which will rule him out of the start of the season.

There is also the likelihood that Alvaro Arbeloa could return to Spain for £6million in the coming weeks, the Spanish international having expressed a desire to return home for personal reasons.

All such problems will be put aside by Benitez when he is able to unveil Keane as the new strike partner for Fernando Torres.

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