Robbie Keane may find it hard to believe, but there was a perplexed look on the face of Rafa Benitez yesterday at suggestions his treatment of the player was personal.
The sale of the striker by Liverpool, just six months after his £20million arrival, led many to believe that the Anfield boss was playing political games.
Those close to Keane even ventured the idea that Benitez was "playing with his head". But for the unemotional Spaniard, the truth was simper – he needed to cut his losses.
And he was adamant he had not taken a risk in leaving his squad dangerously short of strikers. "It is not a gamble. The Liverpool squad is good enough. If you have two or three injuries it’s part of the game, and we have shown we can cope.
"What are you expecting from a striker? Goals. And a second striker? Goals.
"We have people like Torres and Gerrard that can guarantee a lot of goals, and then Kuyt, Babel and Ngog or the other players, I think they will score goals, too. So it is not a gamble."
And on the last-minute decision to offload Keane, he added: "You have to try to be objective, not personal, and we had to decide quickly. It was a situation that, at his age, couldn’t keep going on.
"If you know something’s not working you have to do something now. Sometimes you can have a really good player, but he doesn’t perform when he goes to another team.
"We looked at everything and said we had to do it and it’s a good deal in terms of cutting our losses.
"At his age it could have been worse if we had waited longer and he continued without performing."
It was a hard, calculated decision that was based on financial reality.
Benitez added: "Could you see Keane scoring a lot of goals? We were talking about ‘maybe, maybe’, but we had to make a decision based on reason. He was not playing at the level he can play at.
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"We had a very good offer for a player who is 28 and wasn’t playing at the level we were expecting so maybe it was good for him and us.
"I’m the manager and have to make the decisions and take the responsibility. We were trying to make him improve, trying to get him into the system with the other players, but sometimes it doesn’t work.
"Normally Keane can guarantee goals but he couldn’t in this situation."
Benitez said he did try to persuade Spurs to throw in Aaron Lennon as part of the deal, but when they refused to budge at the last minute, decided to proceed anyway.
"Tottenham were talking about giving us certain players. We thought that would be the right way with the right names," he explained.
"But then, in the last day, we decided that we had to do it with the deal that we had on the table – we knew as a club that we had to do it. We were talking and everybody agreed that we had to do it now."
Benitez was also eager yesterday to stress that Liverpool could still get their money back on Keane. Contrary to reports emanating from Spurs, the fee was in excess of £15m, and could rise to almost £20m with add-ons.
"The difference could be nothing if they win trophies," he said.
The furore over Keane completely overshadowed tonight’s latest instalment of the Merseyside derby, as Liverpool visit Everton for their FA Cup fourth round replay.
Benitez, who will consider resting some players tonight, said: "Playing away will be different because in front of their own fans they will have to attack more, and that will give us space."
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