Robbie Keane was unveiled to a delighted 5,000 strong crowd of Celtic supporters outside Parkhead late on Monday night and immediately outlined his desire to bring success to his boyhood club. Keane signed on transfer deadline day from Tottenham Hotspur on loan until the end of the season, with first team football at White Hart Lane not guaranteed.
Keane, 29, was given a rapturous reception by those who braved the cold weather to catch a glimpse of their new hero and his disbelief at his whirlwind switch was made all the greater when he saw the numbers that had turned out to welcome him to the SPL.
“It is just absolutely unbelievable,” Keane told the crowd. “This is the reason why I have always wanted to come to Celtic. These fans are absolutely unbelievable. I just want to say thanks very much to everyone for turning out.”
The Republic of Ireland striker and talk of a switch to Celtic had become a perennial fixture of recent transfer windows, but few gave credence to talk of the former Inter Milan, Liverpool and Leeds goalscorer becoming the figurehead of Tony Mowbray’s January revolution of his squad until news broke at 5pm on the final day of business.
Citing Celtic as his boyhood club, Keane said that it was a dream come true to land a move to the Glasgow club. Although his hero status is already confirmed with the club’s support, he will go down in history if he can make a significant enough contribution to overturn Rangers’ current 10 point lead at the top of the SPL table.
“It’s no secret over the years that I have been a Celtic fan,” said Keane. “It’s a club I have always wanted to come to.
“It’s been a mad few days but I am here now and I am hoping to bring a lot of success in these short few months I have here at Celtic.”
Keane fell down the pecking order at Tottenham following the January arrival of Monaco striker Eidur Gudjohnsen. The failure of his boss Harry Redknapp to move Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko on left the London club with five strikers, meaning that Keane was far from guaranteed regular action.
"It's a good move. Robbie needs to play,” said Redknapp shortly before Keane put pen to paper in Glasgow. "He's too good a player not to be starting here regularly. He wants to play all the time.
"It's been difficult to guarantee Robbie a starting place at the moment. He's not a happy man when he's not playing regularly. But he loves his football; he's a great trainer, a great man about the place."
