With Liverpool’s recent recruitment efforts nothing short of world-class on the whole throughout the Jurgen Klopp era, it’s difficult to imagine a time when things weren’t quite so seamless.
Yet, that was exactly the case right after the turn of the century, with Gary MacAllister sent on a mission to bring Robbie Keane to Anfield back in 2001 – but got mixed up with his phonebook and left the message with Robbie Fowler instead.
“My phone goes and it goes to the answer machine. I picked it up and it’s, ‘Hello Robbie, it’s Gary Mac here. Just seeing if you’re interested in coming to Liverpool’,” the Reds’ former leading goalscorer in the Premier League told the ‘We are Liverpool’ podcast.
“I’m thinking, ‘It’s a bit strange because I’m already at Liverpool.’
“Then I phoned Gary Mac straight away and he said, ‘I’ll have to come clean. I’ve been told by the manager to give Robbie Keane a message!'”
At least the message didn’t travel to someone outside of the club!
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Despite resisting the lure of Merseyside until the 2008/09 campaign, the Irishman went on to enjoy a prolific handful of years in the English top-flight, amassing 126 goals and 37 assists across 349 appearances (with nine goal contributions posted during a brief stint at L4).
It seems a little unfair that Keane was never granted at least a full season to fully showcase his talents in the famous red shirt.
Certainly, according to ex-teammate Steven Gerrard’s account of the former Spurs hitman, he certainly had the makings of a player who could have been a productive part of the squad (courtesy of RTE Radio 1, as relayed by Sports Joe): “Robbie came and worked hard on the training pitch and scored some important goals for us.
“I think there was a bit of clash with Rafa Benitez maybe, but I certainly wanted him to stay around for a long time. Hee’s a very talented player and I like playing with him so I was sad to see him go.”
Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about any kind of clashes with our current forward line, with Klopp having prioritised character just as much as talent in our recruitment.