The immediate playing future of Republic of Ireland and Inter Milan striker Robbie Keane last night hung in the balance as Inter considered no less than five offers - all from English clubs - for the 20-year-old striker. Sources close to Inter last night confirmed to The Irish Times that Charlton, Chelsea, Leeds United and Newcastle United have all expressed an interest in either taking Keane on loan or in an outright purchase of the former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City player, while West Ham have had a £10 million sterling bid turned down.
Furthermore, those same sources have confirmed that, in a change of policy linked to other transfer market activity by the club, Inter have now ruled out loaning the player to a smaller, "provincial" Serie A club. With Inter currently interested in purchasing Greek defender Grigorios Georgatos, as well as Leeds United's French midfielder Olivier Dacourt, the Milan club is giving serious consideration to the outright sale of Keane.
The prospects of Keane playing at Upton Park have diminished, however, after West Ham manager Harry Redknapp admitted failing in a bid to sign him. He said: "We went over to Italy and had a meeting with the people from Milan and made an offer of £10 million but we couldn't quite agree terms with them."
Bought from Coventry for £13 million last August, Keane has had limited playing opportunities at Inter. Although he lined out in last night's Italian Cup quarter-final second leg tie at home to Parma, that game was largely irrelevant given that Inter had slumped to a humiliating 6-1 defeat in the first leg.
Keane and his team-mates did, however, have an eventful night. A Molotov cocktail was hurled at the team coach as it approached the San Siro. The resulting fire was quickly extinguished by police and the players and coach Tardelli were unscathed. Security staff chased the culprit, believed to be an Inter fan. The game proved less eventful, ending in a scoreless draw before a mere 1,100 fans.
In Serie A, Keane has played in only five of Inter's 10 games, without scoring, and has only made a minor contribution to Inter's run to the fourth round of the UEFA Cup in which they are due to meet Spanish side Alaves. The return to full fitness of Italian international striker Christian Vieri has complicated things for Keane since, with Vieri a guaranteed first choice, the Irishman has been one of four players competing for the other place in the two-man attack favoured by Inter coach Marco Tardelli.
In recent weeks, Tardelli has consistently favoured Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba, Turk Hakan Sukur and Chilean Ivan Zamorano ahead of Keane. Recoba's good form has been one of the few bright notes in an otherwise indifferent Inter autumn run, while Sukur did himself and Inter a lot of favours when scoring a dramatic, late winning goal against Hertha Berlin in the UEFA Cup place last week.
Although Keane last week re-iterated his desire to stick with Inter, indicating that he was opposed to a mid-season change of club, it could be that his plans will now be changed by the Milan club. Currently joint 10th in Serie A on 12 points, Inter seem sure to be active on the transfer market when next month's January transfer window opens. In that context, the sale of Keane to an English club is now more probable than possible.
More than 20 scouts attended the reserve game between Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday last night. Sunderland, Ipswich and Newcastle were all represented and were believed to have been watching Ian Harte, who has lost his firstteam place to Dominic Matteo. The game, which ended 3-3, also featured the first 90 minutes of competitive action for David Batty in a year.
