Keane move pleases Trapattoni

Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni believes Robbie Keane’s return to Tottenham could be good news for his country.

The 28-year-old striker secured a £12m deadline day switch back to White Hart Lane just six months after leaving the club in a dream £20.3m transfer to Liverpool.

However, he scored just seven goals in 28 appearances for the club he supported as a boy and spent much of his final few weeks at Anfield sitting on the bench.

For that reason, Trapattoni, who has admitted his concern at the number of his international players who do not start regularly for their clubs, is hopeful that Keane’s return to Spurs will prove beneficial to Ireland.

Answering questions from fans on the Republic’s official website, www.fai.ie, the Italian said: “Robbie is a player who thrives on playing regularly.

“Going to Spurs will give him regular games. That is good for Robbie and it is good for us.”

Trapattoni has made no secret of his admiration for Keane during is time in charge, and indeed, in response to another question, put him in the same bracket as some of the best players with whom he has worked during his distinguished coaching career.

He said: “In my career, I have managed players of great quality like [Michel] Platini and [Zbigniew] Boniek at Juventus, [Nuno] Gomes at Benfica and [Ramon] Diaz at Inter to name just a few.

“To win, you need great champions. Robbie is one in this category.

“He is a natural captain and of great importance to the whole squad.”

Keane will hope to make a second debut for Tottenham against north London rivals Arsenal on Sunday afternoon before joining up with the Ireland squad for their World Cup qualifier against Georgia in Dublin next Wednesday evening.

The Republic will welcome Hector Cuper’s side to Croke Park having already beaten them 2-1 in September, a game which took place, controversially, at Mainz in Germany because of the political situation at the time in Tbilisi.

Goals from Kevin Doyle and Glenn Whelan at the Bruchweg Stadium were enough to get Ireland’s Group Eight campaign off to the perfect start, although Trapattoni is expecting a much tougher test this time around.

He said: “They [Georgia] will be strong opposition and are not the same team we played last year in Mainz at all.

“Hector Cuper had only just taken on the job when we met last September but since then, they have improved substantially.

“I saw the match they played against Romania in November and they were a very well distributed, well organised side.”

Ireland would go level with group leaders and world champions Italy if they were to complete a double over the Georgians after taking seven points from their first three games against Cuper’s side, Montenegro and Cyprus.

A 1-0 win over the Cypriots in Dublin in October went some of the way to erasing the memories of the 5-2 European Championship qualifier horror show in Nicosia in October 2006, and Trapattoni made no apologies for sitting on the narrow lead given to them by Keane’s lone strike in that game.

He said: “Cyprus is the side in Group Eight that has put all teams, including Italy, in difficulty.

“Having the mentality, as sometimes happened in the past, of abandoning the balance of the team in order to push up might give you a 10% chance of scoring, but it leaves you wide open to counter-attack and a 90% chance of conceding.

“That is no use to anyone. Let’s not forget the time we did push up against Cyprus and lost 5-2.

“Every team in our group will tell you that Cyprus are very fast and very dangerous. If you give them space, they will skewer you like a chicken.”