Benitez defends Keane sale as risk worth taking

Rafael Benitez has defended the sale of Robbie Keane back to Tottenham as the right move for Liverpool and implied the Republic of Ireland captain was simply not good enough to make the grade at Anfield.

Benitez’s decision has provoked some disquiet among Liverpool fans who fear that his failure to bring in a replacement forward could undermine the club’s ability to challenge champions Manchester United for the Premier League title.

There is also a widespread suspicion that Keane was a victim of the manager’s dispute with the club hierarchy over transfer policy.

Benitez is refusing to sign a new contract unless he is given control of the buying and selling of players and said last week that the decision to buy Keane had been the club’s decision rather than his.

On Tuesday however, the Spaniard claimed that the decision to sell Keane was made purely on the basis of his performances on the pitch.

“Sometimes good players cannot settle down in the team and when this happens you have to consider the situation and try to react quickly,” Benitez told the club’s website, www.liverpoolfc.tv.

“If it is not good for the team then it is better for everyone to make a decision and because of the situation in the transfer market and for the opportunity for the player we had to do it now.

“I have to analyse things and try to look at the bigger picture and this means thinking of the club and the team and what is best for them.”

The departure of Keane left Liverpool nursing a loss on the 20 million pounds they paid to acquire him six months earlier and leaves the injury-prone Fernando Torres as the only experienced, out-and-out striker on the club’s staff.

Benitez can also call on Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt, although the Dutch pair have been used as wide players far more often than as central strikers, and David Ngog, the promising but inexperienced young French forward.

“It is a risk but the situation was not good and we needed to do something,” argued Benitez, who insisted he had no personal issues with Keane.

“He was trying to do his best and the key was that Spurs showed a lot of interest and they were pushing really hard for him.

“The player needed to play and he was not doing that as much as he would have liked with us. But I cannot criticise him in any way because, as I have said, he tried to do his best for us.”

Keane has maintained a dignified silence over the way he was treated at Anfield but it would be astonishing if he did not feel slightly aggrieved.

The Irishman’s confidence appeared to be affected by Benitez’s habit of substituting him (18 times in 28 appearances) and when he appeared to have finally hit some form, with three goals in two games over Christmas, he was immediately relegated to the bench.

Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge, now a media pundit, believes Benitez’s decision to offload Keane could come back to haunt him.

“Look at the players they’ve had in the last four years. Michael Owen was sold, Robbie Fowler has been and gone, Peter Crouch and now Robbie Keane,” Aldridge said.

“To sustain a challenge on Manchester United you have got to have one if not more of those players on top of what we’ve got at the moment.

“Dirk Kuyt can play up front, Ryan Babel at a push and then there’s the lad Ngog who is nowhere near the quality needed, he’s a young lad.

“There are certainly not enough options.”

Keane may yet have the final word in the whole saga — the Irishman will be back at Anfield on the final day of the season for a match which may yet be decisive for Liverpool’s title dream.