Eventful first season sees Robbie Keane within touching distance of silverware in Israel

Robbie Keane’s first season as a manager has coincided with an eventful seven month stretch at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Maccabi under Keane lead the Ligat ha’Al, the Israeli Premier League, and topped their Europa Conference League group to reach the last 16 for the first time in the club’s history. His 30 matches as boss have returned 22 wins, six draws and only two defeats, coming against arch-rivals Maccabi Haifa earlier this month and away to Gent on October 5th.

The 43-year-old’s initial foray into management could yield four trophies, starting with the Toto Cup final on Wednesday evening against Haifa.

Winning silverware appears essential to Keane’s job security as Vladimir Ivić (2018-2020) is the last Maccabi manager to complete a full season, with recent predecessors Giorgos Donis, Patrick van Leeuwen, Mladen Krstajić and Aitor Karanka dismissed inside six months.

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But Ireland’s record goal scorer has made a smooth transition from pitch to dugout. Starting as player-manager in India with ATK, Keane was assistant coach for Mick McCarthy’s brief second coming as Republic of Ireland manager, then went to Middlesbrough with Jonathan Woodgate while there was a month-long stint under Sam Allardyce as Leeds United were relegated from the Premier League.

“You have to start somewhere,” said Keane at his opening press conference last June. “I needed a good opportunity.”

Ever since, Keane has refused to “get into politics” with his management team, which includes former Irish international Rory Delap, largely refusing interview requests from foreign media.

[ ‘You have to start somewhere’: Robbie Keane on his move to Tel Aviv ]

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The Dubliner’s time in Tel Aviv was interrupted by the Hamas attack on October 7th and subsequent war in Palestine. Due to the war, Maccabi played no games from October 5th to November 9th with all foreign staff and players evacuated from Israel on October 8 as a precaution.

Keane and Delap needed to use safe rooms on two occasions before they left the country, firstly in their apartment complex and then at the airport when a rocket siren sounded.

In November the squad and management reunited in Poland for a training camp before the resumption of European action against Zorya Luhansk as the Ukrainian club are forced to play games in the Polish city of Lubin. Maccabi held their European home matches at the TSC Arena in Bačka Topola, Serbia.

Avenging their defeat to Gent, Maccabi beat the Belgians 3-1 on December 14th to join Aston Villa and Fiorentina in the Europa Conference knockout rounds to be held in April.

Keane’s management team also includes former Middlesbrough analyst Phillip Hudson and former USA caretaker coach Dave Sarachan, who worked with the striker at LA Galaxy.

“Robbie is Robbie,” said Sarachan in November. “He is emotional, but positively emotional. He cares deeply about getting the details right in a professional manner.

“I’ve seen him grow so much in the role. He has the right balance. He comes to work but he also enjoys a laugh.

“People should know, we as a staff truly love Tel Aviv, truly love the club,” Sarachan continued. “We have embraced the opportunity to be here despite the difficulties at this point. It has been very challenging. Robbie has really set the tone in terms of not allowing anything negative to affect the players mentalities.”

Maccabi have had to replace two employees brought to Israel by Keane after head of fitness Andy Liddel and former Ireland under-21 goalkeeper Graham Stack departed prematurely.

Goalkeeper coach Mike Stowell replaced Stack after he left Maccabi “by mutual consent” last July following an incident in a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Liddel cited “family reasons” for not returning to Tel Aviv in late November after the 64 day break in domestic football.

Crowds were permitted to return to Bloomfield stadium, initially capped at 5,000 before the Israeli security services recently allowed 15,000 inside the 29,400 capacity arena. According to a Maccabi club source, life in Tel Aviv has returned to some semblance of normality with the threat of rocket strikes subsiding since mid-December. Beaches and bars have also reopened.

On the resumption of professional sport in Israel, Keane’s side went on a 12-game winning streak but dropped points recently, including the home loss to four-in-a-row chasing Haifa that saw Maccabi’s lead atop the table reduced to two points.

The fixture backlog, competing across three domestic competitions and in Europe has placed a strain on Keane’s squad, which prompted the club to secure the return of two former players on loan, Matan Baltaxa from Austria Vienna and Eden Karzev from Turkish club Basaksehir.

Karzev was loaned to Maccabi after Basaksehir said the Israeli international “violated the sensitive values of our country” for sharing the slogan “bring them home now”, in reference to Israeli hostages, on Instagram.

“It’s a final, this is something that you play football for,” said Keane of the Toto final against Haifa. “I am just thinking about how we can perform and how we can get some momentum.”

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