FOOTBALL

SPURS IN KEANE FURY

KEANE: Dream come true

Tuesday July 29,2008

By Richard Tanner

TOTTENHAM yesterday parted company with striker Robbie Keane to Liverpool in a £20million deal that left chairman Daniel Levy bitter and angry amid a furious fall-out with Rafa Benitez.

Although Levy has dropped his complaint against Liverpool to the Premier League, he said he did not “regard it as a transfer deal” because of the way it was done. 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 initial concerns over the comments of Liverpool boss Benitez and accusations of “working behind the scenes” effectively accused Tottenham’s Premier League rivals of tapping-up. The official complaint was withdrawn after an apology and a donation to the club’s main charity, the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

Levy said: “I have already made my opinion clear on the nature of this transaction. I don’t regard it as a transfer deal – that is something which happens between two clubs when they both agree to trade.

“This is very much an enforced sale, for which we have agreed a sum of £19million as compensation, plus a potential further £1.3m.”

Keane said: “I would like to place on record my thanks to the board, players and fans of Tottenham for the past six years, which were the best and most enjoyable of my career to date.

“I will never forget them. I would specifically like to thank chairman Daniel Levy for understanding that, as a fan, joining Liverpool is a lifelong dream of mine and one I couldn’t let pass by.

“I hope one day the Spurs fans, who have been brilliant to me, can understand this.”

The Keane deal has opened the floodgates to an anticipated £250m spending spree by Premier League clubs.

Andy Johnson is on the brink of joining Fulham from Everton for £11m after having a medical at Craven Cottage, Sulley Muntari moved from Portsmouth to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan for £12m and El-Hadji Diouf switched from Bolton to Sunderland for £2.5m.

Those moves are poised to have a major domino effect – with the money spent triggering a frenzied spell of activity with the start of the Premier League season now only 18 days away, and the transfer window a month away from closing.