You may remember, at the tail end of 2009, Robbie Keane found himself in languishing on the Tottenham bench. Harry Redknapp told his players that they would not be allowed host a Christmas party in response to recent poor results, only to subsequently realise that 16 members of the Spurs squad had spent the previous Saturday night in Coppers on Harcourt Street in Dublin.
It ended with the players involved being fined a couple of weeks' wages, and Keane was dropped having been accused as the main instigator of the party. It was rumoured at the time that Keane might be sold for his part in the bash, but that never materialised. Part of the reason behind that may be Harry Redknapp's extremely high opinion of Keane, as he elucidated to the media this afternoon. Speaking to the media at the launch of Eir Sports, Redknapp remembered that trip to Dublin as ultimately being important for team morale, and used the opportunity to wax lyrical about Keane:
Fantastic. [He is] one of the great players. Great character. He's gone to America and he is still a superstar. He could have gone over there and just taken the money, but that's Robbie. He only knows one way: to work his socks off every time he puts his shirt on, every time he puts his boots on. He has been an amazing player.
Quite a tribute to Keane. In retrospect, Keane being labelled as the orchestrator of the event may have been unfair, as David Bentley told us in March:
We were all to blame. We were all master-planning it together; it was the worst plan ever, but we had a great time.
I was actually in trouble that day. I had got in a bit of a heated row with Harry, so he made me stay behind for extra training, extra running. But the flight was taking off at one, and all the lads had gone, so they were all waiting on the plane for me. I was desperately trying to get my running done, but he had left me with the fitness coach and he kept saying 'no, no you're not done'.
He left me with the fitness coach, The flight was at 1pm, and I finished at quarter to one and I was 45 minutes away, so they had to wait 45 minutes on the plane for me.
Harry Redknapp was speaking at the launch of eir Sport, formerly Setanta Sports and the eir Sport Pack. The eir Sport pack includes eir Sport 1 and eir Sport 2; BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe and BT Sport ESPN. The eir Sport Pack is now free to all existing and new eir broadband customers. eir Sport has also secured the rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup. eir Sport was formerly Setanta Sports.
