Injuries and Appearances
The simplicity of the matter is that next season Rotherham are going to need players who can play games. They cannot afford players to be sat on the injury table and whatever opinion you might have on Michael Keane, no one can deny that he has spent far too much time unfit. In just over two years at the club Michael Keane has made just 56 starts for the club. In a slightly less amount of time, David Worrall who has also been told his contract will not be renewed started 85 times.
In Keane's time at the club, that consisted of eight more games than that of Worrall's he has started 30 games less- two thirds of a league season. Keane cannot point to the fact that he fell out of favour as under four managerial eras whilst Keane has been at the club, only Mark Robins has not seen Keane in his first choice team. The fact is Keane has not played enough games for the club on a regular basis to warrant a new contract.
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Discliplinary Troubles
In those 56 starts for Rotherham, Keane has been sent off three times, all last season. Sure, in a time where referees branding cards for sneezing red cards are more common than usual. But none of Keane's reds were for handball preventing a goal, or huge refereeing gaffes. They were for thuggary. None more so than in the FA Cup defeat to Mansfield last season where he proceeded to outrageously upend Gus Uhlenbeek before kicking him whilst the Mansfield man laid injured. A mass brawl ensued and the pair were still fighting as they entered the tunnel. Rotherham went on to lose a game they were drawing.
The second came for an ungainly elbow off the ball on a Port Vale player, whilst they held the upper hand. They drew a game they should have won. And the third was for more fighting, this time against Tranmere. Luckily he was not the only player to walk and the team held a 2-0 lead. Three sendings off for a player in a season is not necessarily uncommon. All straight reds for violent conduct that had a detrimental effect on the team is not good enough and throw that in with 8 booking his picked up his discplinary record speaks for itself!
Attention Seeking Selfishness
This is the most damning reason why Mark Robins made the right decision to release Michael Keane. The attributes that the Irishman possessed on the pitch (desire, fieryness and battling) are ones that you would expect of a team player. However, Keane was most certainly not a team player. His selfishness and his apparent craving of adulation from the fans cost Rotherham a lot of points. Despite only scoring one goal in his time at Rotherham, Keane was always noticable when Rotherham scored. This was because no matter who scored and whether he was involved in the goal or not, Keane would always run to the crowd jumping up and down and kissing the badge resulting in a round of "Keano, Keano". He's just happy that we scored right? And so what if he kisses the badge, every one does that! Well how many players kiss the badge and celebrate alone in the front of the crowd when they aren't the ones that scored. Surely if he was so interested in the team's welfare he'd be celebrating with his team mates! Why would he go and celebrate in front of the crowd if he was not hoping for adulation that he duly received.
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This is all hearsay of course but there are factually proven cases where Keane's demand for the spotlight and glory cost the team. In the game against Port Vale, where Keane went on to get sent off, he was involved in a spat when the team were awarded a penalty. As Jonathan Forte was fouled he raced to get the ball to take the spot kick. As he marched back to the spot he was appraoched by Forte and Will Hoskins (who had already scored) but brushed them both away. He wanted to take it, not because he thought he would score but because he wanted to score and he wanted the glory. Of course, he missed and Rotherham drew when really they should have won. It was deja vu in this season's home game to Northampton. With the team winning 1-0, Rotherham were awarded a penalty. Keane once again raced to the ball and visibly fought off designated taker Delroy Facey and other willing takers to miss his second penalty. The Millers went on to lose 2-1.
League Two will be a battle next season and success will mean everyone pulling in the same direction as a team. Keane is not a team player and this reason alone justifies the club's decision. Added to the other two reasons, Mark Robins had little other choice.
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