Reader question: In this headline – Keane's Monkey's Off His Back, Says Benitez (AFP, November 8, 2008) – what does "monkey" mean?
My comments: First, little background to the Keane story.
Keane (full name Roy Keane) is a Liverpool (a top English football club) striker. He's Irish. Benitez is the Liverpool coach. He's from Spain. "Monkey off his back" is an idiom, and it is American.
Hence the confusion, alright? (^-^).
Seriously, let me clarify. Last Saturday in a Premier League match against West Brom, Keane scored two goals in a 3-0 victory. It was Keane's first and second goals for Liverpool in a league match this season, after his transfer from Tottenham in the summer. In other words, it's been a long time coming, hence "monkey" business.
On soccernet.com, I found the exact Benitez quote (Keane sends Reds top, ESPNsoccernet.com, November 8, 2008):
"I have had no doubts that he would start to score regularly for us. Robbie has told me he has got a monkey off his back, not an expression I had heard before but I understand what he meant. "Robbie has game intelligence and he is always a threat to defenders. It was only a matter of time before he scored in the league."
What Benitez said, in a nutshell is now that Keane's scored his first, he'll feel free to score more.
Free from the burden of the "monkey", of course.
The "monkey on the back" is a figurative American-speak referring to any problem that's been bothering people, especially a nagging problem that has been there for a long time. Come to think of it, unless you're climbing trees like a monkey yourself, having a monkey on your back is bound to be an unwelcome distraction – to whatever task you're trying to accomplish.
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