Alex12345... i would rather you didnt talk for me thanks ,just give your own opinions not those of all fans on this forum . Keanes transfers and the season have been very poor even in his own opinion in many interviews Sky ,4-4-2 etc ,He spent 7 million on attacking players Edwards,Martin,Priskin,and Leadbitter who was signed as an attacking midfielder and played with a defensive one in Trotter ,Healy Quinn,Norris for the majority of the season and scored 3 goals one of them a penalty .He is without doubt a great player but far too similar to Norris and last season Colback who i agree was a great loan signing .
As for Delaney as Naa says he was signed as a left back who was only switched to centre back due to injury . The other loans Begowic aside have hardly set the world alight John ,Murphy and Healy managed less goals than Stead in the championship this season in more games .
As for Wickham rated as the next Rooney ,England schoolboy at every level already given first team experience by Magilton what exactly has Keane done thats so great ?
Surely we should be asking why so many players under performed so badly this year and and looked half the players they were in other seasons Garvan ,Stead,Counago,Walters,R Wright Mac at the start ,Edwards,Leadbitter,Priskin,Rosenoir. Perhaps if Keane had got the best out of his squad we all wouldnt be putting all of our hope and pressure on to 17 year old lad who was the only highlight of an awful year ?
Well done though Connor keep going

shame alot of the talk is about his market value?

we should be proud of yet another product of the academy and not seeing him as a short term realisable asset.. and even if we do, we are talking about a player with capabilities and records matching Walcott, at a younger age - with one hopefully successful season at Town next year nothing below £12m should be considered..

praise shoud also be given to the Town setup for nurturing this talent and i truely hope for his sake we a) do not put too much pressure ona youngster to perform next season, and b) that he does have a great season and help him develop into what i truly believe could be a world class player..

Balham: yep, there already seems to be a lot of expectation on Connor going into next season. This is way too soon. He's still only 17 and we don't want to wreck his career.

He should not be our first-choice striker, he should be one of three or four. the people on here hoping and expecting him to be a star next year are putting too much pressure on him.

After all, not that I think this will happen but, I seem to remember a similar expectation on a certain Dean Bowditch a while back.....

Well done Connor. Alex12345 - 'superkeano' with the lowest league finishing position in decades after spending £8 million (and then loaning alot of that out) and some of the most dire performances that I can recall since the Duncan years! You need to wake up and realise what superkeano has actually managed to achieve - in his own words very disappointing.
As for loanees, agree Colback was good, Murphy had a strong start then went right off the boil and was no better than Stead (who at the time of farming him out was our leading goal scorer). O'Connor was not found by Keane but actually asked Ipswich for a trial upon which he was taken on. Disagree with Brian Murphy good presence in the goal, yes good shot stopper but his command of the area is suspect IMO and his kicking is average.
So, as you can see by the posts following your post, there are 2 sides to a coin- 2 different opinions, try seeing both sides. Whilst you clearly a massive RK, many on here are not but will support him whilst he is Manager of ITFC. Like naa, I support ITFC and go to watch them play and not Keane sitting in the dugout!
Superkeano - no, averagekeano - if he improves!

Surco72: Lets face it, does it matter whether Delaney was bought as a left back or a striker to be honest. He has performed well, therefore he was a good signing. Also the same with Leadbitter. Who cares whether Leadbitter was bought as an attacking midfielder. He has performed well and carried the midfield along with Jack Colback this year. Regardless of Leadbitter's goal tally, he has played well and i wouldn't like to think where we would be without him this season.

As for Wickham, I'll tell you what Keane has done so great. Magilton brought Wickham on as sub for one, maybe 2 games. Fair enough JM realised there was talent there. However; Keano has focussed a lot on the youth team this season and really brought through a number of promising youngsters, E.G. Wickham, O connor, Eastman, Clark and Troy Brown looked promising in a lot of reserve games too. Keane has gradually eased Wickham into our team giving his more and more responsibility as the season went on, which proved the correct decision and one that JM might not of done. Also Keane has clearly worked with Connor Wickham a lot on the training ground to get his full potential, which is proved by the sums of money being talked about for the young lad.

Also, those players you claim have played badly, Counago has started 9 games this season so not exactly given much chance, therefore its not Keane's fault he has underperformed. Priskin has also only started 9, therefore not much chance to prove himself. I think it's also harsh to point out Gareth Mcauley after the season he has had alongside Delaney.

anyone know where to find highlights of this game online?

alex12345 - who selected the team and sent Priskin on loan? Whose fault is it if the players you talk about have not in your opinion been given much chance? Yep you've got it the Manager.
Do agree with you that Mcauley and Delaney have had a good year once they were played in their right positions. I also agree that pushing O'Connor into the first team was good along with CW. It was also good to see Peters back in towards the end of the season as a regular player as he too IMO, in the games he played, did okay.
I am sure that JM would have played Connor and continued with Rhodes too. Eastman, Clark and Brown only featured at the very end of the season once we had avoided relegation, so not sure that they were really brought through as yet but I am sure that blooding them to the first team is no bad thing.

Yeah I watched the whole game Connor played well, took his goals well, almost got a hattrick. I thought Connor only joined us recently from Reading didn't realise he was in our under 12s.

i read this morning that leeds are looking at him as a replacement for beckford but they are looking at maynard aswell, do yuo think they can afford connor though aint they in dept?

Alex12345 ... Wickham was thrown in to start against Palace and West Brom in the third and fourth games of the season which could only have knocked his confidence as Keane didnt know his team then and dropped Wickham soon after ,how is that gradually being eased into the first team ? That is hoping our wonder kid can do it straight away against two of the stronger and more physical teams in the league .
Again Leadbitter has looked ok in a poor team nothing more compared to a lot of midfielders this season for other sides and certainly didnt shine as the most expensive signing in the league this season ,was he in team of the week loads-no,top 100 players outside premiership as voted by players and managers - no but then if you think that the run around a lot and work hard is entertaining as you clearly do then yes he is great and we have had a really good season well done Roy.
And talking of giving youngsters a chance Garvan has not had a good run after some good performances in our only decent spell of the season ,Clarke,Haynes and Rhodes were sold before Keane had a good look at them so a few sub appearances in the last few games of the season is hardly blooding the youngsters

i read this morning that leeds are looking at him as a replacement for beckford but they are looking at maynard aswell, do yuo think they can afford connor though aint they in dept???? this could be worrying

Must admit I do find it amusing that someone would say not to blame RK for Pablo's failings this year as he's only started 9 games. And Priskin for that matter. Expensive signing, hardly any games then loaned out, apparently not RK's fault. Talk about having a blinkered view!

Look, whatever anyone may think about RK's skills as a manager the fact remains that we had a poor league campaign statistically - league position, goals scored - and an equally poor one for style, motivation, tactics. RK clearly had a bad season.

What we now need is for him to sort himself out. Sign some players that will actually improve things - and please no cloggers - play a balanced, stable team and play with some style and get the players motivated. The results will come if he manages that.

I personally have big doubts about any of those things happening - and am certain that all of them won't (none of his press conferences have hinted that he intends to play a wide-pacy, attacking style next year. The exact opposite in fact). Some of you have faith, and that's fine. But please don't try and claim he did anything like a good job last year.

He didn't, even by his own admission.

I've not hated keane, and i haven't loved Keane, i've supported him as manager but next season really is last chance saloon,

as naa said - its quite worrying what style he'll bring to the team, i thought the style we used was because of relegation battle, but now he's started talknig about time wasting and getting yellow cards on purpose i can see that next season style is going ot be compact and hoof ball. which i dont want.
Yes results are important, but going to games and thinking WTF is that formation all about - itsn't an enjoyable day.!

super: thanks! You're almost the only other one to share concern that we may be watching a lot of rugged unpleasant football next season.

Many on here would love to see a bunch of 1-0 wins that bore the pants off us, just to get promotion.

It's sad that we have to waste a year of our footballing lives just to get promoted (we're talking 46 hours of our lives for home games. That's a lot of your life to give up in the hope of promotion - and that's assuming that that style will even get us promoted. Blackpool proved that you can be attacking and open and not spend money and get promoted, Doncaster did well with an open style, WBA played attacking football, as did Notts Forest and Cardiff. In fact all the top teams this year played open, attacking football to varying degrees)

20M Arry or do one. @joe - Leeds havent a pot to piss in, and why on gods earth would he go there!! He knows the score, a good season here fingers crossed we go up, if not his stock level rises, we get £12-15m next year to rebuild for the following season. Simples

Naa - i've said all season that results mean everything, but being honest once i saw the new tickets prices etc, entertainment has to come into it, - makes you wunder if keane will buy another striker - why does he need another one, when he'll prob play 4-5-1.

well done connor

Back of the net!!!

To add my comments to the latest Keane debate, my expectations were raised when he joined here as I thought it was a big statement of positive intent from ITFC and I looked at how Roy got Sunderland promoted. I think I have an objective view of him and I really wanted and still want him to do well. However I recognise he has had an awful season in every measurable aspect including bad results, negative performances and tactics, poor signings from narrow sources, poor sales/releases, unhelpful media comments regarding players and fellow managers... I do not see how this will change, and the early signs are worrying in terms of lack of transfer activity (Norwich seem to be signing players!!) and the type of player we seem to be looking for ("men" who can waste time and run the clock down).

Just goes to show that this boy has got the lot, I stand by my statement from about a month ago that this guy will be worth 20M this time next season, he is already better than Benty was at that age, I firmly believe he will propell us into the Prem next season, just need to keep hold of him because he is a real gem