Always better to let your feet do the talking

ONE way to put an end to a raging debate is, as they say in football, to put your foot through it.

It can seem sometimes that we have been debating the viability or otherwise of Robbie Keane forever. Notwithstanding the small matter of a general election — and, by the way, I’d like to announce here that, when the circumstances are more propitious, I plan to lead some like-minded media folk in a radical new movement called ‘Democracy Later’ — it seems like a large chunk of the national conversation in recent weeks has been dominated by the subject of Ireland’s captain and record striker, and whether or not he should be regarded as arrogant, greedy, lazy, at a crossroads, in limbo, on the slippery slope, nearing the end or his own worst enemy.

Then just 37 minutes into his West Ham debut at Bloomfield Road, he seizes on a loose ball in the box and — boom! — it’s in the back of the net. Debate over — or, at least, the terms are suddenly changed to what might yet be in store from Robbie Keane as opposed to whether he has any future at all.