Magic and maturity: the mark of the new Keane

THERE ARE many reasons to mourn Ireland’s absence from this summer’s World Cup, and not the least of them is that at the game’s very highest level, the country’s record goalscorer won’t get the chance to strike when the iron is red-hot.

Going into today’s big game with Arsenal at Highbury, Spurs’ Robbie Keane is enjoying arguably the best form of his career, with seven goals in his last eight outings contributing to a total of 15 this term - especially impressive given his difficulties in nailing down a starting place earlier in the season. Little wonder that, with voting having just commenced this week, the Dubliner is favourite to win the club’s Player of the Year award.

What a difference a few months have made, and what a pity Keane won’t be leading the line - and the team - in Germany in June. Of course, this season still holds out the prospect of a heady reward at club level. Arsenal may be determined to ensure otherwise, but few would begrudge Keane the chance to savour Champions’ League action next season, the prospect of which has led him to describe today’s north London derby as the most important of his Tottenham career. “The Arsenal game is the biggest since I came to the club,” he admitted yesterday.

“It’s important for me personally and for the players at the club we achieve what we want to achieve, and that’s qualifying for the Champions League.”

While it’s nice to be able to celebrate the good times with Keane, the mark of the man is the way he has learned to cope with the bad.

Last season, the frustration of being stuck on the bench at Spurs boiled over when manager Martin Jol opted to send Mido into action as a substitute in a 1-1 draw with Birmingham. Keane stormed off down the tunnel in a very public display of anger and was fined £10,000 (€14,400) for his trouble. Dead man walking was the consensus on his future at Spurs.

After a summer of feverish media speculation, the only surprise was that Keane was still at White Hart Lane, and still cooling his heels. And even if he remained a certain starter for Ireland, international duty offered scant consolation as the Irish World Cup train went off the rails.

If you tended to believe the more lurid papers, Robbie Keane was going the same way. A couple of nights on the town five days in advance of Ireland’s crunch game in Dublin against France inflated into a minor controversy. The mud stuck: when Keane underperformed in the remaining qualifying matches, against France, Cyprus and finally Switzerland, a game in which he was substituted for Stephen Elliot with over 20 minutes left, it was easy for Keane’s critics to join the dots and create a caricature of a player who had lost his way on and off the pitch.

Keane didn’t help to dispel the image of a man besieged and a career in turmoil by blanking the Irish press, but the period out of the limelight was obviously well spent, because when the chance came to prove that he still had what it takes, he was ready to seize it with both hands - not to mention a forward tumble and a bow and arrow climax. Robbie was back.

“When you are playing consistently, it is much better than stop-start,” he explained yesterday. “You get that sharpness. I’m as fit as I’ve ever been because I’m playing on a regular basis. Football is my life. If I’m not playing every week, or only now and then, it is very difficult. I try not to get myself down. I can be miserable at home no problem because I can get away, but when I come into training I can’t be.”

Rediscovering his shooting boots at Spurs was one thing, but it still came as a bit of a shock when Steve Staunton opted for Keane rather than Shay Given as the new Irish skipper. These are still early days in the Staunton era but already it looks an inspired decision by an astute manager, who explained the choice was partly inspired by growing evidence of Keane’s new maturity in the face of adversity. Certainly, the responsibility seems to suit a player who, aged 25, already has veteran status in the Irish camp.

Keane rewarded his new boss with a goal in the game against Sweden, reopened communications with the media, and then went back to his club where he promptly made a sensational bid for goal of the season with the first of two in a 3-2 win over Blackburn, and then finally robbed the back pages of a perennial - ‘What Will Robbie Do Next?’ - by signing a new four-year contract at Spurs.

Like his trademark goal celebration, this has been a head-over-heels season for Robbie Keane.

“It’s turned into the most enjoyable and satisfying season I’ve had,” he admits. “Obviously at the start I was not playing as much as I’d have liked but when I did get in, it completely changed round for me. I’m delighted.”

And us for him. All that need concern us now is that he doesn’t peak before September.