This article was first published today in our bespoke Sports newsletter The Fixture. You can sign up in seconds to receive it straight to your inbox every weekday here.   

The Fixture would like to get one thing clear from the outset of today's newsletter: as a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur supporter I love Robbie Keane unconditionally for everything he gave to the club. His achievements as a player need little explanation. It was written large in the introductory message posted on the official Maccabi Tel Aviv website as it announced the arrival of Keane as the Israeli Premier League club's new head coach on a two-year contract. 

“During his career as a player, Keane scored more than 400 goals for the clubs he played for including Tottenham Hotspur, Leeds United, Liverpool, Coventry City, West Ham, Aston Villa as well as the Republic of Ireland where he is the most capped player and top goal scorer,” the statement read. Maccabi could have added the name of Inter Milan to Keane's list of previous clubs, or that of Celtic, or mentioned the five trophies he won and the numerous player of the year gongs he scooped. But then Keane's record as a player speaks for itself.

It is less clear what Keane's actual coaching credentials are, however.

The Maccabi website was even more succinct on that front adding that: “Keane was appointed as first team coach at Leeds United towards the end of last season. Previously he was assistant manager at both Middlesbrough (2019-20) and Republic of Ireland (2018-20).”

Cast your minds back a few weeks and you will recall that it's the same Leeds United who were relegated from the Premier League. You can blame Keane for that, the Elland Road side had looked condemned long before Sam Allardyce arrived at the club with the Irishman in tow but look at his other coaching exploits and it does not fill you with confidence that he will be a roaring success.

His time as assistant to Mick McCarthy in the Republic of Ireland set-up was hardly stellar, his manager once calling him a “cheeky b******s” in public. Meanwhile, he took on a gig at Middlesbrough during the same time he was under contract with the FAI, a state of affairs which moved the acting CEO at the time to query “how this will affect his position with us which is a full-time contract”.

Whatever the significance or otherwise of Keane's role in the set-up, Ireland finished third in Euro 2020 qualifying. At Middlesbrough, he lasted a year in the job as Jonathan Woodgate's assistant when the former England defender was sacked after a run of only one win in 12 games during which Boro dropped to 21st in the table. Neil Warnock was called in to save the club from relegation to League 1 – which he duly managed.

The Herald:

Football is, of course, awash with great players who failed as managers, similarly it is impossible to read too much into Keane's past experiences elsewhere. Certainly, when he offers up his opinions on Sky Sports he comes across as a thoughtful contributor who has a clear view on how the game should be played but the only manager that he played under who could be considered a heavyweight in the traditional sense was Rafael Benitez during his time at Liverpool and Marcelo Lippi, for a very brief, barely perceptible time at Inter. 

Mikel Arteta, for example, learned at the feet of a master in Pep Guardiola whereas Keane's collective experience has come under plenty of journeymen managers and alongside a seemingly checked out Allardyce, McCarthy and Woodgate – two of whom fall into the bracket of old-fashioned British manager (some might unflatteringly call them 'dinosaurs') and a rookie who has not found a manager's job since taking over as caretaker at Bournemouth for a couple of months at the end of the 2020-21 season.

It is, of course, unfair to compare Keane to Arteta since this is not a like for like example. Keane is looking for a foothold in management, however, and failure at Maccabi could mean his dabble in the profession is done before it has even started.