Robbie Keane makes a great move

Paddy McMenamin argues that Robbie Keane made a good decision by transferring to Glasgow Celtic.

I have never read so much verbal diarrhoea in my life as some of the so-called objective reporting from the Dublin based press regarding the transfer of Robbie Keane to Glasgow Celtic. I thought for a minute that Keane had delivered himself as a suicide bomber to the Taliban or Hamas such was the vitriolic poured on his move from the mega bucks EPL. Apparently the English Premier is the only show in town, although watching the likes of Wigan, Portsmouth and Hull is hardly my idea of a good nights entertainment!

Let’s face some reality about English football; it sponges off Murdoch’s billions from the Sky Empire, Man U are €700 million in debt and Liverpool are € 350m. Every club is bailed out from Sky to the tune of €30 million every season, with parachute payments to the dross who get relegated to keep them afloat! I personally can’t wait for the day when the deck of cards collapses. What happened to balancing the books and business plans; the EPL is just one step removed from NAMA!

What has all the money achieved? Three Champions Leagues in 26 years! The best league in the world? How many teams have won the league in the past 20 years? Go outside the top four and what have you got? The league is divided into three distinct groups; the top four; the next eight, all former ‘big’ clubs, but now without the financial muscle to make a serious bid at winning anything! And the rest, just trying to survive with no serious interest in anything else, just Premier cash! So this is the greatest league in the world where by all accounts Robbie Keane should have stayed with West Ham, Sunderland or Wolves, all ‘powerhouses of football’, or even Spurs, without a league title in 50 years, whose attendances are half of Celtic. In fact I nearly thought Keane had moved to Darlington and his old mate, Steve Staunton, such was the negative coverage of the most incredible move of the transfer window.

Keano moved to Glasgow Celtic, one of the biggest and most famous football clubs in the world. 61,000 fill Parkhead for every home game, which puts them in the top ten in Europe, and second only to Man U in Britain and if Celtic ever plied their trade in the EPL, Parkhead would house 80,000 immediately! Talking of attendance figures, the European Cup record is 136,000 at Hampden for Celtic v Leeds in the Euro Semi in 1970, a never to be beaten record. In 2003 Celtic took 80,000 fans to Seville for the UEFA Final; Celtic support, recently estimated at 10 million world-wide with the Irish and Scottish Diaspora making this a truly special club. No other country of similar size in Europe has two massive clubs like Celtic and Rangers, and of course Celtic will forever be hailed as the first British and non Latin team to win the European Cup!

Celtic are one massive institution and the equal of anything in England, but the little Englander mentality fails to understand why Keane wouldn’t sign for a Micky Mouse team like Wolves or West Ham. The fact is the name Celtic has a special appeal and only financial constraints and the power of SKY prevent Celtic fulfilling their true potential, and yet despite the gap in finance, Celtic have defeated Man United, Liverpool, Blackburn, AC Milan, Juve, Lyon, Barca, Benfica, et al in Europe in recent years plus there is just no more atmospheric stadium in Europe than a cavorting, bouncing Parkhead on a European night!

Robbie Keane came to Celtic because it exudes tradition, history, the most incredible fan base in football, and the desire to fulfill the dream of donning the green and white hoops. Jock Stein once famously said, ‘The Celtic Hoops don’t shrink to fit an inferior player’. Robbie Keane follows Dalglish, Larsson and Johnstone, wearing the famous No 7!

Thousands head to Parkhead on a Saturday from Ireland because Celtic represents the social and cultural history of Ireland and Scotland over the past 100 years. The Donegal emigrants who left after the Famine helped in the foundation of the club and it has represented the Irish community in Scotland ever since. Celtic are a shining example of achievement, and represent the success of the emigrant, proud and defiant and are more than just a football club, they represent a community similar to the Catalan giants, Barcelona.

It must really hurt those who profess adulation about English football clubs because they know that they can never ever be experienced in the same light. Robbie Keane knew exactly what he was doing when he moved north of Hadrians Wall. This is the Celtic we are talking about, not some run of the mill English football club without history, tradition and international fan base. He made a great move, to a great club.