Will Keane’s return to Preston North End divided opinion.
Football fans have long memories and Keane’s first spell at PNE really didn’t work out.
A budding talent at Manchester United, Keane needed a strong loan spell at North End upon his arrival in 2015.
Stints with Wigan Athletic, Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday didn’t quite work and Keane – then 22 – needed to show something at North End in order to prove himself to United.
Keane managed just one goal – a rather memorable goal, admittedly, as he helped PNE beat Burnley at Turf Moor – across 20 Championship games before deciding to leave.
United were happy for Keane to stay at Deepdale despite a shortage of strikers, but he had other ideas and wanted to leave PNE to try and seize a golden Old Trafford chance.
That may have been going on 10 years ago but Keane’s return to North End last summer left some torn over whether to hold onto being somewhat jilted or whether to give him another chance.
Keane’s recent record surely swayed even the most dubious of fans; 48 league goals in three seasons at Wigan Athletic, including 12 in the Championship last season.
It’s not often PNE are able to sign a striker after hitting double figures in the Championship but Keane represented a rare opportunity thanks to Wigan’s financial woes.
What we have seen has been remarkable, a player whose second act in a PNE shirt is completely unrecognisable from his first.
Keane’s goal against Coventry City on Friday night means he has now hit 12 goals in just 1700 minutes of Championship action this term.
Keane has been a complete striker this season.
If you need him to drop in and link midfield to attack, he can do it. If you want him to stay up as the focal point in attack, he can do it.
Keane’s link-up play has been exceptional and he has proven to be the perfect foil alongside the returning Emil Riis in recent weeks.
From a fairly forgettable loan spell more than eight years ago to one of the first names on the team sheet, Keane has completely changed the narrative around his PNE career.
It’s unclear just how much PNE paid to get Keane out of Wigan Athletic, but he has been an incredible bargain and he deserves all the praise coming his way after that difficult loan spell.