O'Neill salutes legendary Keane

The Aviva Stadium waved goodbye to an Irish sporting hero on Wednesday night, as Robbie Keane bowed out of Republic of Ireland action after scoring 68 goals in 146 appearances for the Republic of Ireland.

Keane’s final game came in a 4-0 friendly win over Oman, a game in which saw Keane net his 68^th goal for Ireland and simultaneously catching Gerd Muller who had the record of most goals scored for an international side.

Shortly after the game, Republic of Ireland Manager Martin O’Neill gave his thoughts on what was an emotional night for his now former captain.

“It’s a great end for him. He was obviously quite emotional about it really,” said O’Neill.

“As he’s mentioned the last couple of days, he’s loved playing for the Republic of Ireland.

“It was a great send off. It was nice of the crowd to wait around for him, they could’ve gone home.

Keane netted the second goal of the game after getting on the end of a Jon Walters ball, before flicking the ball around an Oman defender before firing low into the Oman goal to draw level with the great Muller.

“He got his goal. I was originally giving him 20-25 minutes, he looked at me first of all and then at halftime I said, I’m definitely going to give you another seven minutes so either get another goal and beat his record or you’re off, and he’s off. So he’s drawn level with Gerd Muller, what a record that is, it is fantastic.”

Keane has had an Irish career spanned across a period of 18 years in which has held a number of special moments for the Tallaght man.  However, during his post-match press conference Martin O’Neill was in no doubt that it was time for Keane to go.

“Personally speaking, I think it is. Somebody who is the same age as me, I think it’s time to go,” the Republic of Ireland boss joked.

“He’s been exceptional. I think he genuinely wanted to concentrate for the rest of his time here (in football) on club career in America and whatever.

“The designs he has on the aftermath I’m not sure, but as was mentioned yesterday, a few things about coaching and management, I would advise him to try and stay in the game.

“He scored the goal tonight.  He’s taken it brilliantly and I do think that’s the type of goal he’s scored so often in his career, that I think in three, four years, he could easily be scoring it, but I think it’s the right time for him, genuinely, I think it’s the time for him to go.”

Keane has worked under a number of managers during his 18 years of service to his country, but while Martin O’Neill has enjoyed working with Keane, he wishes he could have worked with him in the peak years of the Dubliner’s career.

“It’s a great achievement and I often said it to you here that it’s a real shame, not a shame, just the nature of things, that I’d like to have been Manager of the Republic of Ireland when he was 27, 28 rather than the later stages of his career.

“I think that when he had more energy, more running power, a wee bit quicker, all of those type of things, and I think that with the younger element coming through here, I thank that Robbie might have been able to avail himself of a few more goals.”

Keane’s record shows how prolific he’s been in a green jersey for almost two decades and of course, in order for the Boys in Green to be successful, O’Neill will need to find players to fire the nation to World Cups and European Championships alike.

 “I think if anything, if I was Shane Long I’d be thinking I’d like a part of this. I’d like to score, rather than being a scorer of great goals, I’d like to be a really great goal scorer and I think he should look at that there and think, I’ve plenty of time, I’m quick, I’ve got to lot of things about my game and get into the penalty box and try and do what Robbie Keane has done all his career.

At the age of 32 people might think Jon Walters is coming to the end of his Irish career, however, as his performances in recent times have showed, Walters has the potential to continue as an Ireland star for a while yet.

“He’s been massively influential in our time, in my time here and played a big, big part in us getting there (to Euro 2016).

“I think you can see a properly fit Jon is still a big asset to us. He wasn’t completely right or wasn’t right really in the Euros, picked up the injury down in Cork in training and played for about 65 minutes against Sweden, but wasn’t really, properly fit in the games.

“Here he’s come back and whatever’s happening to him at club level, whether he plays the games or not, he still has a big part to play for us.”

Following the convincing 4-0 demolition of Oman O’Neill was also asked about the value of the fixture.

“It was just to get some game time for some of the players, it was a balancing act tonight, I must admit, because as you mentioned earlier there, Robbie’s not part of proceedings from here on in , so you have to think in a serious note, you have to think about giving him some time because it’s definitely his evening  and also the fact that we’re preparing for Serbia as well too,” O’Neill continued.

“We’re allowed to use six substitutes tonight and I was always going to give the goalkeepers a half each, so that narrows it down and what I tried to look at was the number of minutes that players have played at a competitive level since the start of the season.

“Ciaran Clark hadn’t done a great deal, (Marc) Wilson has just changed clubs at this moment, Richard Keogh has played all of the games.  In fairness, with Seamus Coleman not playing, Cyrus Christie is an automatic selection for us in that position, so balancing it there and trying to for instance get Jon Walters some time on the field, and other people like Wes (Hoolahan) have played, so for me tonight, I was pleased with the game, really pleased that we had the game, pleased that maybe we scored a couple of goals and that it’s worked out all right.  Is it absolutely ideal?  Who knows.  But it’s better than having no game at all.”