Robbie Keane reveals the one bit of advice Teddy Sheringham gave him that he never forgot, it helped transform his career

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When it comes to ranking past Spurs strikers there aren’t much better than Robbie Keane.

First joining Spurs in 2002, Keane arrived in north London from Leeds United after previously enjoying spells at Coventry City and Inter Milan.

The Irishman would go on to score a whopping 122 goals for the Lilywhites over two spells at the club.

It was during his first season at Spurs, that the ex-Leeds man would link up with Tottenham legend Teddy Sheringham – a link-up that would ultimately have a huge impact on Keane’s career moving forward.

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Robbie Keane reveals what advice Teddy Sheringham gave to him at Spurs

Signed by then-Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle, Keane arrived at White Hart Lane as a relatively inexperienced 22-year-old, with much still to learn at the top level.

Thankfully for the Irishman, he would be able to learn from the likes of Sheringham in his debut season, striking up a strong partnership with the then-Tottenham captain.

Despite only playing a single season together, Sheringham’s impact on Keane would be long-lasting, with the ex-LA Galaxy forward revealing he “learned a lot” during that campaign.

Keane told the Rio Presents YouTube channel: “I learned a lot from Teddy Sheringham. We were talking about running earlier because I was lively and sharp, I used to run around a lot but that was wasted energy.

“Teddy Sheringham said to me and I will never forget it, he said ‘Why are you running so much, sometimes just stand still as everybody else moves’, I just thought about that after, and then I watched him and played with him.

“He was a number ten Teddy and I was similar a little bit. I would just watch him and he would just be standing still, it was like slow motion with everybody running around. He was around 36 at that time and he was always free, he would always get on the ball. I eventually understood what he meant.”

Sheringham is ‘glad’ to have played with Keane

Having notched over 100 Premier League goals during his illustrious career, the Irishman has unsurprisingly helped shape a number of iconic frontlines throughout the years – an example being Keane’s successful partnership with Dimitar Berbatov.

Keane also managed to strike an impressive partnership with Sheringham during their sole season together – scoring 14 goals in his debut campaign.

Sheringham has since reflected on his relationship with Keane telling the Tottenham Hotspur website in 2018, that ‘it was a great experience to play alongside him’:

“Even though he’d been playing a few years by then, he had a couple of moves, I think he was still learning his trade as a youngster.

“He gave as good as he got and you wanted him in your team because things happened when he was on the pitch.

“I’m glad I played with him, glad I had that experience because he was very different to any other player I played alongside. He was very clever, very tricky, very confident in his own ability and in later years, he knew exactly what he wanted and where he wanted the ball.

“Hopefully, I was someone for him to look up to at that time and I certainly learned a few things from him. You never stop learning in this game. He had different attributes to me and it was a great experience to play alongside him.