Highlights
Robbie Keane's time at Leeds United was marked by financial struggles and underwhelming performance.
His move to Tottenham Hotspur revitalized his career, becoming a club legend with 122 goals and 35 assists.
Keane's final stats at Leeds include 56 appearances, 18 goals, and a price per goal of £666,667.
Robbie Keane is a name synonymous with football fans across England for his exploits for various clubs in the Premier League.
A clinical finisher, the former Irish international has over 300 career goals to his name and is best known for his time at Tottenham Hotspur, where he became a club legend.
But, had his move to Leeds United worked out, then we may never have seen him play for the North London club.
His 2001-02 season in Yorkshire was one of the most barren in his career and the financial ruin the club were about to experience meant that he had to be sold to Tottenham for a cut-price fee.
For Leeds fans, the promise he displayed while on loan from Inter Milan the previous year may still be fresh in their memories and the £12 million transfer of Keane should still be viewed as what could have been.
Robbie Keane's Leeds loan-spell
After impressive spells at both Wolves and Coventry City, Keane made a huge jump to sign for Italian giants Inter Milan for a fee in the region of £13 million. Manager Marcello Lippi was believed to be a big fan of the striker, and it was he who pushed for the Inter hierarchy to sign the 20-year-old prodigy.
Unfortunately for Keane and Lippi, just one game into the new season the manager was sacked and new arrival Marco Tardelli quickly determined that he did not see a future for the expatriate.
This outcome meant that in December of that year, Keane was searching for a move away from the San Siro and Leeds came calling in search of a new striker.
Now plying his trade at Elland Road, he quickly made his mark, scoring a penalty against Middlesbrough in just his third game for the Whites.
Keane continued to score and his arrival was also met by an upturn in form for Leeds as they lost just four of the 18 league games the striker featured in.
All this success was enough for David O'Leary to pursue a permanent move and, in May 2001, he secured the signing of Keane for £12 million.
Keane struggled after signing permanently for Leeds
Having accumulated £25 million worth of sales over the past two transfer windows, the striker was one of the most expensive men in football.
Seemingly this burden laid heavy on Keane, as in the following campaign he managed a meagre nine goals in 33 games, with just three of those coming in the Premier League.
As the 2002-03 season arrived it was clear that the Yorkshire club were in financial ruin with debts running up to the value of £80 million. This was a result of some ridiculously expensive signings that included the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Olivier Dacourt, Robbie Fowler, and Keane.
These signings were all made in a bid to make Leeds the powerhouse of England, but it never came to fruition and former chairman Peter Risdale was essentially gambling away their future.
The majority of the big-money signings were sold way under their valuation and Keane was one of these as they took a £5 million loss after he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £7 million on deadline day.
For the striker, this brought a sorry end to his time at Elland Road, never fully making his mark on the club.
Keane fared much better at Tottenham
His move to Spurs proved the highlight of his career as Keane went on to spend eight years at White Hart Lane across two spells.
During that time, he became a real modern-day legend as he netted 122 goals and provided 35 assists across 306 games.
Persistently scoring over 10 goals each season, the Tottenham faithful always knew they could place trust in the Irishman, who eventually left the club permanently in 2011.
Post Spurs, he spent time at West Ham and Aston Villa, but it was at LA Galaxy where he found a home once again, as he netted 104 goals in 165 games towards the end of his career.
Looking back, it is clear that Leeds did not get the player that many other sides received. However, had financial ruin not impacted the club as heavily as it did, he may have been given more of a chance to display his goalscoring prowess across an extended period.