Rafa Benitez finally gets his man: Robbie Keane signs for Liverpool

According to the Liverpool FC website, Irish international striker Robbie Keane has signed with the Merseyside club.

The 28-year-old signed a four-year deal with the Reds, whom he claims to have supported as a youngster. The transfer from Tottenham Hotspur reportedly cost an initial £19 million, but could rise to £20.3 million after performance-based bonuses.

It is widely reported that Keane's signing will put the Gareth Barry saga to rest. After the collapse of a £16 million move to Juventus for Xabi Alonso, the Spanish international will stay at Anfield, meaning there is nothing like the £18 million fee demanded by Aston Villa for Barry left in the coffers.

When all is said and done, I think the move for Keane will turn out to be the best of the rumoured moves Benitez could have made. I agree with many pundits and fans alike who throughout the summer pined for a winger: this is the true soft spot in the Liverpool lineup and over the past two (three? four?) summers Benitez has failed to address the situation.

But with only murmurs about a possible move for Valencia winger David Silva, there didn't appear to be a wide-man on the horizon for the Reds. With the loss of Peter Crouch to Portsmouth, the Liverpool boss needed to add another striker on top of filling the wings.

While Barry is a great player, the center of the Liverpool midfield is pretty full. However, with only Fernando Torres, Andriy Voronin, 17-year-old Daniel Pacheco (who has played very well during the preseason) and newcomer David Ngog (he signed for £1.5 million from Paris St-Germain), the Liverpool front line wasn't particularly deep.

I discount both Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt as strikers, since it appears they are the depth on the wing -- if Torres goes down with an injury, Kuyt could step in, but who plays on the right?

Keane is a proven Premier League striker, who will only prosper playing alongside the likes of Torres, Alonso, Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano. He is similar to Torres in that he can create his own goals, his range of scoring is fantastic and his movement is phenomenal. If -- and this is a big if -- Benitez decides to play both players at the same time, defenders will have difficulty shutting both players down.

There is still weakness out wide, but Robbie Keane could prove to be the signing of the summer for the impact he could have for the Reds.

In an interesting side note to the transfer, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has referred to the move not as a "transfer" but as an enforced sale, according to The Guardian:

"I was incredibly disappointed when I first heard, not only that Liverpool had been working behind the scenes to bring Robbie to Anfield, but that Robbie himself wanted to go and he submitted a transfer request to this effect.

"I have already made my opinion clear on the nature of this transaction. I don't regard it as a transfer deal - that is something which happens between two clubs when they both agree to trade - this is very much an enforced sale, for which we have agreed a sum of £19m as compensation plus a potential further £1.3m in additional compensation."

According to the article, Levy will not pursue an official complaint with the league, as Liverpool have admitted the approach wasn't handled properly and are making a donation to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, the club's charity fund.

It remains to be seen whether Spurs will pursue a similar complaint against Manchester United, now that a move for Dimitar Berbatov appears to have evaporated.