Robbie faces Coventry wrath - January 31, 2001
Robbie Keane comes face to face with his former team-mates tonight as struggling Coventry travel to Elland Road in the Premiership.
Robbie was a cult hero at Highfield Road and his move to Italy caused much anger with the fans and manager Gordon Strachan.
The Irish striker was never given a chance in Italy so he decided to move back to the Premiership to join Leeds United. Since his return he has hit four goals - which will have Coventry quaking in their boots tonight.
Robbie has nothing but respect for Coventry and their manager. He said: "I'll always be grateful to Gordon for giving me that chance. "Unfortunately it didn't work out at Milan because they had a change of coach soon after I went there. But it was still a great experience."
Coventry go into tonight's game knee-deep in the relegation zone and manager Strachan knows the dangers of the youngster that he snapped up from Wolves. The fiery wee man believes that Robbie never got a chance to fail in Italy.
Strachan said: "It won't affect him at all. Whether you call him the best player in the world or the worst player in the world, it never affects Robbie.
"He never had the chance, to be honest. With our kids here, I've always said to the youth team coaches, you must at least give them the chance to fail. That way they can at least go away and say, well I had the chance to fail.
"You must give a kid the chance to fail and I don't think Robbie had the chance to fail. I know it's an unusual comment, but I think it's right."
The Coventry boss believes that Robbie is a real threat in tonight's match but he won't be giving him any special treatment.
Strachan continued: "It's not frightening, but we're more aware than anybody else of the talent he's got and the more we can keep the ball away from him, the better.
"Obviously we've got a job when the ball goes to him, but I think if you can do your job right and keep the ball away from him, that will give you less problems."