SOCCER TRANSFER NEWS:BIRMINGHAM CITY officials insisted last night the club were serious in their efforts to sign Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane. However, they made an early decision to abandon the idea after assessing the cost involved so as to have as much time as possible to pursue alternatives during the transfer window.
The comments followed claims by Keane that there was never a serious offer from City on the table and that the club may just have been seeking publicity when they issued a statement from their acting chairman, Peter Pannu, on Monday. Pannu claimed the terms sought by the striker’s agent meant the deal did not make financial sense.
“The Birmingham stuff was never on,” said Keane yesterday. “It was never going to happen. It was a bit bizarre with a statement coming out from them, which I found very strange.
“A deal was never really on the table, so I just think that Birmingham was looking for a bit of publicity, really.”
But a spokesman for the club told The Irish Times last night they had a firm offer for the striker accepted and had initiated talks about personal terms with Keane’s representatives.
“That’s a definite and when you talk to a player’s representatives the negotiations are in progress. As to what happened after that, I can only refer back to the statement the club issued yesterday.”
The suspicion is Keane may have believed the club’s interest wasn’t genuine because the talks ended quickly and without him ever becoming personally involved. He may also have felt somewhat aggrieved too over the tone of the media coverage, not least because it was reported in Birmingham yesterday the 30-year-old Dubliner had not sought a pay rise, preferring to maintain the roughly €78,000 per week he is currently on, albeit over the course of what would most likely have been a three-and-a-half-year deal.
The move, in any case, remains off, leaving both sides looking for alternatives. In the absence of sudden interest from Sunderland, who find themselves with plenty of cash and down a striker in the wake of yesterday’s sale of Darren Bent, the most obvious one from Keane’s perspective remains West Ham. The London club have confirmed their interest in recruiting the striker although Keane insists he knows nothing of any approach from the Hammers.
“I haven’t heard anything at the moment but we will just see what happens,” he remarked. Keane’s position at White Hart Lane is not likely to improve over the coming weeks with Roman Pavlyuchenko generally reckoned to be a more likely target for Sunderland manager Steve Bruce after renewed speculation yesterday the Russian could be replaced by Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano, who is out of favour at Seville.
Asked if he thinks he will still be at Spurs at the end of the month, Keane replied: “I’m not too sure; we will have to see what happens. There are still a couple of weeks left, so I’m sure we’ll find out by then.”
Former UCD and Derry City striker Conor Sammon looks set to stay at Kilmarnock after turning down a move to Championship outfit Scunthorpe yesterday.
