Aldo: Robbie shouldn’t fear the drop

IRELAND and Liverpool legend John Aldridge believes Robbie Keane must leave Spurs – and says the striker shouldn’t be afraid of dropping down a division to get regular football.

With Ireland’s friendly game against Norway just a week away, Keane is currently nursing an ankle injured in training but Aldo believes he has what it takes to win the even bigger battle his career now faces.

“Robbie’s a fighter,” says Aldridge, who was one of the stars of the Charlton era for Ireland. “He has that fire in his belly. You can see what it still means to him when he scores a goal.

“He’s passionate. But the next couple of months are big for him, and his agent has got to get out there, graft for him and find him a club in January. He’s got to move.

“Tottenham have got an excellent squad and some really good forward players. And it doesn’t seem like there’s any way back for him with (Harry) Redknapp – he’s only getting little 10-minute cameos here and there. And the lad deserves better than that. He obviously knows he’s not in Redknapp’s plans so he should just take the knock and get his agent to earn his corn and get him a move.”

Even if it’s to a Championship club? “Why not? It did me no harm when I played for Tranmere. I’d like to think I gave Ireland plenty of good years when I was playing in the First Division. You’ve got your match fitness, that’s the main thing. And, let’s not forget, the Championship is a really good standard. And as long as Robbie keeps himself fit, he’ll score goals.

“His experience is phenomenal in international football so as long as he’s playing at that decent level, that won’t be a problem for Robbie. But 100% he needs to move in January.”

Aldridge, who famously missed a penalty when Wimbledon shocked Liverpool at Wembley in 1988, says people shouldn’t be too harsh on Keane for fluffing his own lines against Slovakia last month.

“Okay, it wasn’t a great penalty and I can’t understand why he didn’t do the stutter – which he got off me, by the way,” he says with a laugh. “But that can happen. We’ve all missed one. I’ve missed on one of the biggest stages, the cup final, and it’s a nightmare. Robbie will bounce back but he needs to be playing week in, week out.”

While Aldridge reports that long-suffering Liverpool fans – among whom he counts himself, of course – are feeling much more optimistic with new owners in place and the team experiencing a mini-revival on the pitch, his former Ireland and Anfield team-mate Ronnie Whelan worries that the celebrations on Merseyside might be a tad premature.

“People are going, ‘yes, this is it, we’ve turned the corner’ – but some of the performances haven’t exactly been great,” says Whelan. “Yes, it was a great result and a good performance against Chelsea. But there’s a long way to go and a lot of dead wood to be got rid of. You can’t rely on the likes of Rodriguez and Lucas to do it week in and week out. So I think there’s a long way to go before they can get a squad together that’s going to be able to challenge for the Premiership.’’

* John Aldridge and Ronnie Whelan were speaking in Dublin to help promote ESPN’s live television coverage of upcoming Liverpool Premier League games, among them that Stoke City match on November 13 followed by West Ham (Nov 20), Newcastle (December 11) and Fulham (Dec 18) as well as their Europa League tie away to Steaua Bucharest on December 2.