Robbie Keane has completed a dramatic loan move to Celtic on the final day of the transfer window. The Ireland captain became the fourth signing of the day for Hoops boss Tony Mowbray after falling down the pecking-order at Tottenham. Keane has made the switch to Parkhead until the end of the current season, but Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell says there is no specific option to make the move permanent in the summer. Lawwell said: “We’ve been pretty persistent in the last few windows in terms of keeping in touch with what he was wanting to do. Thankfully, today, we were able to do a deal. We’ve known for a while that Robbie is a Celtic supporter and he’s a great connection with the club and our supporters. Up until today, things were not looking very great at all. Things changed this afternoon and were able to put a deal in very quickly. His situation at Spurs was made, I think, pretty plain to him. He always knew we were very, very keen to get him.” Lawwell has also refused to say how the club intend to finance Keane’s estimated wages of 65,000 thousand pounds a week. He also denied the signing was merely a ploy to appease disgruntled supporters. “We’re in a transitional period at the moment,” he said. “Tony probably wasn’t blessed with the strongest squad we’ve had here when he arrived. We were always looking to bring in quality, our supporters do deserve the best and that’s what we do at Celtic.”
10 Feb 2012
