Transfer Deadline Day

Oh how the snow nearly ruined the drama of transfer deadline day in the soccer world. Planes remained on the ground all over England, cars stood at a stand still and players were under house arrest. All the pending excitement of the day threathened to be thwarted by the extreme winter weather. It made me wonder how our little island's history may have been altered if we were prone to such snow blizzards on a more regular basis. Would the English have stayed at home and let us go about our business without harassment? Who knows!

The big move of the day saw Robbie Keane return to Tottenham Hotspur after an ill-fated six month spell on Merseyside. Wolves, Coventry, Inter Milan, Leeds, Spurs, Liverpool & back to Spurs. Have I missed anyone? And still shy of his 30th birthday I believe? He must be up there with the top players in the world in terms of money spent on him in his career. And of course I'm sure he picked up healthy signing fees all along the way also.

To put it in GAA terms, it would be akin to Graham Canty (Cork don't have forwards so I can't quite compare apples with apples) transferring from Cork, a top tier GAA team, to Dublin, a second tier team. Graham, the inspirational leader of the Cork team, would move to the Dubs and declare it was his childhood dream to be a jackeen. However, things go a bit pear shaped after Dublin bow out of the Leinster Chapionship and are dumped into the qualifiers. The mountainy man from Bantry had a rough start to his capital career and inexplicably Conor Counihan offers him an escape route back to The Rebel County. However, it emerges that Donal Og Cusack has rallied the Cork footballers and they have threatened to go on strike if he is not reinstated, not only in the team, but as captain also. Understanding how pig headed his charges could be, Counihan opted for the easy life and accepted the prodigal son back. Canty returns to a heroes welcome and declares it was all a big misunderstanding and he should never have left.

Can you imagine? I won't get into the professionalism debate but this is the type of bollix we would be dealing with all the time if we went down that road. There is no transfer window as such in the G.A.A. but at this time of year the activity is at a peak. I can only speak for Cork but the discussion forums are full of rumour about who is going where and why? Will the club let the player go without opposing or will they object and ensure the player has to down his boots for 52 (or is it 96) weeks?

We are fortunate in Cork that players tend not to transfer to other clubs too often. Occasionally an outstanding hurler from a small Junior B club may move to a Senior club nearby. Due to the gap in playing level no history or rivalry exists between teams and it may be deemed acceptable by the club and they will wish him well. Other times bitter disputes occur and the player is lost to our games for a prolonged period, rightly or wrongly.

The man who bides his time, lets his punishment elapse and goes ahead with his move, can be sure that their will be no Christmas drink awaiting him in his hometown. Where I'm from it would be like crossing the bridge to play for Courcey Rovers or heading out the Bandon Road to play for Valley Rovers. For a long time Valleys played at a higher level than us in both codes and Courceys in hurling. During that period, and during my playing career at home, I never saw someone cross that line. It would be unacceptable.

My generation of players, at least the ones that moved away remained committed to the cause. Two exceptions were the Buckley brothers, Niall and Padraig, who transferred to Oliver Plunketts in Dublin in the early 2000's. They went with our best wishes and had a very successful spell there, with Padraig captaining Plunketts one of the years. Their time there would cost them however, as they would miss the 2oo1 County Final against Ilen Rovers. I have vague memories of Padraig telling me of the disappointment he felt by not being involved in that match. Had we had the duo, we may have made a better job of holding our half-time lead.

Fast forward to 2005. Niall has been back to the club but since moved on to London. Brother Padraig though is firmly installed back in the blue and white hoops of Kinsale. Our panel had up to seven Dublin based players, who trained in a dark corner of UCD's Belfield campus night after night (and still do to this day). Ricky was based in London and I had been based in Brussels since the South-East semi-final.

That year a weary group of players was resurrected and negotiated its way through the South-East and two enthralling clashes against Ballyclough in the County quarter-final. We came unstuck against eventual County champions Erins Own in Buttevant late in November at the Semi-Final stage. I couldn't get off the pitch fast enough that day. My brother and my uncle blocked my path between the gate of the pitch and the dressing room. I managed to evade their outstretched arms. The tears were only hidden by the rain drops rolling down my face. I showered quickly and after we had one drink together in the local pub I headed back up to Dublin with Conor O'Brien and a couple of others. A 06h30 flight the next morning had me at my desk in Brussels by 09h30. It is the last Championship match I played with Kinsale.

Robbie Keane has played his last game for his boyhood heroes. Today, he is considerably more wealthy than he was yesterday. The fickle nature of soccer will allow him return to the club he forced a transfer from a few months ago, with barely a dissenting voice. Robbie Keane can never understand what love for a club is, nor can any of his colleagues, no matter how good they are at pretending.