Keegan interview

[Baggio]

“I want people to dream about their football club. They should, we should all be dreamers at heart. Some people are the opposite and say 'we can't do that', but when you ask them why, they can't give a reason. Well, I say, 'Why not?'” - Kevin Keegan

 

Even before he reminded them how to win, Keegan had taught Newcastle United to believe again. It has been another torrid, fraught season at St James’ Park, but as April draws to a close, rancour is absent and grievances forgotten. They may still be fragile, but Geordie dreams are emerging from a bitter hibernation, a rut of mediocrity that stretches back years.

 

Denied romance, Newcastle fans are denied themselves. With no league championship since 1927, no FA Cup since 1955 and no trophy of any significance since Bob Moncur lifted the Inter Cities Fairs Cup in 1969, the same year a flag was planted on the moon, what defines them is not achievement, but their love, yearning and loyalty.

 

“Because I’d been out of the game for three years, people said I couldn’t know what I was doing,” Keegan, speaking in his first newspaper interview since returning to Tyneside, said. “But the fans, their passion, dreams and expectations haven’t changed.

 

“They want to win something, see good football, enjoy their Saturdays. I’ve been here before. I understand. And I’ve got unfinished business.”

 

He gets it; he always has. Sam Allardyce had the science and the structure, but radiated prickly introspection. Glenn Roeder had history with the club, but lacked clout. Graeme Souness implored supporters to adore 1-0 victories and insisted that Albert Luque would “put his hand into the fire for you.” At boardroom level, there was inconsistency, debt and interference.

 

Keegan — who had stepped down at Manchester City in 2005 — monitored it all and mourned. “I was up in Scotland with my Soccer Circus, but I’d followed the club,” he said. “I just remember thinking that it has never moved on. It has had little false dawns since I left, but it has never gone on properly. It’s a shame, because I think we started something really good last time.

 

“It was all set up to move on apace, but it got caught up in the privatisation and stuff like that. When I heard that Sam might leave, my first thought was ‘that’s ridiculous, he’s not been there long enough, he’s not had a chance’, but then it was announced he had gone. And then Harry Redknapp was going to come and you think to yourself ‘good choice’ and then . . .”

 

And then the phone rang. A friend was on the line, gnawing at his heart, asking if he would meet Chris Mort, the Newcastle chairman. Keegan was 56 (he turned 57 in February), and immersed in his business, not missing football, but here was something special; a chance to go back to the club he left 11 years earlier, the club he saved from extinction, rebuilt and revolutionised. To finish what he started.

 

“It was the time they were talking to Harry, probably the Thursday or the Friday, and I said ‘yeah, I’ll meet the chairman. But I want to meet the owner [Mike Ashley] as well,’ ” he said. “You’ve got to be honest. You can talk to chairmen like Chris, who’s a great guy, but in football nowadays, it’s all about the owners. You can see that with what’s happening at Liverpool now.

 

“They’re the ones who put the money in or refuse to. They’re the ones who buy it or sell it, who get partners on board, who dictate where the club’s going to go from a directional point of view. I just wanted to sit with him and talk. But the owner was abroad, so we didn’t meet until the following Wednesday. We fixed it up for London, I drove down and got there at about 11am.

 

“I sat there with the owner, the chairman and Tony Jimenez [subsequently installed as vice-president]. I just said to them ‘what are your ambitions for Newcastle United Football Club?’ I liked the owner. He just wants to come to a game and enjoy it, as you can see. But he also wants the same thing I want, the same thing everybody connected to Newcastle wants.

 

“Success. And the tools to bring it are here. We reached an agreement very quickly.”

 

With the “big four” virtually a closed shop, the parameters for success appear different from 1996, when Keegan’s Newcastle came achingly close to wresting the title from Manchester United, yet the manager makes a faintly startling statement. “The opportunity is better than it was last time and that’s no disrespect to what happened then,” he said.

 

“That was fantastic, because we took a club that was going nowhere and turned it around. But I think the opportunity now is even greater — if we get it right. Because all the things we didn’t have then, we do now. A big, beautiful stadium, the training ground, the Academy next door. We don’t even have board meetings. It’s a fantastic time for the club, but the first team has to lead it.”

 

Lift-off dragged its heels. Mort has spoken of the “extraordinary” number of wives who told him their husbands wept when Keegan’s appointment was confirmed, but while fans rejoiced, the team’s suffering continued.

 

“When he first came here, we were so frustrated with each other that, in training, the tackles were flying in,” Steven Taylor, the defender, said. “He’s brought respect back.”

 

No signings were made during the transfer window, nine games elapsed without victory and while the appointment of Dennis Wise as executive director (football), Jimenez and Jeff Vetere (technical co-ordinator), merely replaced the agents and advisers who held unofficial positions of prominence under Freddy Shepherd, the timing encouraged awkward headlines.

 

“It was very tough,” Keegan said, “but it wasn’t totally unexpected. The trouble with fans and the media nowadays is that everything is black and white — I suppose I’m at the right club — but football is grey sometimes. When you come into a club where things haven’t been working, and this isn’t a criticism, you have to change. Why? Because if you don’t, things might stay as they are. That takes time.

 

“To start with, we felt it was just a case of surviving this season and then rebuilding, but because we’ve gone these six games unbeaten, it’s probably happened a bit quicker than we thought. We’ve survived easier, the football has been a lot better than people thought this bunch of players could produce and I don’t think I need as many new players now as I did on day one.”

 

The “big relaunch” that Ashley promised Keegan for this summer — detailed on these pages by Terry McDermott two months ago — has now been redrawn. “We’re looking at the club in a different light now than we did even four or five weeks ago,” Keegan said. “We’re looking at it now and saying “realigned” more than “relaunched”.

 

“And that’s what you hope players are going to do: ‘come on, show us why I shouldn’t go out in the transfer window and replace you, show me what you can do, show me why you should be in our plans next year’. That’s what they’ve done. I’ve told the board I don’t want six or seven signings, I want three or four, but I want top-quality ones.”

 

The names have already started rolling — Thierry Henry, Deco and others, all reminiscent of those heady days in the mid-1990s when the football dazzled, money talked and fans reported (incorrect) sightings of Roberto Baggio in a Wallsend chip shop.

 

“That was fantasy, wasn’t it?” Keegan said. “But it can be encouraged. As long as the people in the chip shop don’t mind.

 

“We won’t be bringing in the top-notchers, I don’t think. Not because we can’t afford it, but because they probably won’t come here. We don’t offer them enough yet, because we can’t offer them European football.”

 

Nevertheless something lost has been rediscovered. As Mike Bolam of nufc.com put it, “the whole mood of the city has been lifted”. It was visible at a Barclays coaching session for local students at Newcastle’s training ground this week; Keegan answered questions, signed every autograph, encouraged, cajoled. Young eyes burnt fiercely; dreams were being dreamt.

 

Kevin Keegan and Steven Taylor were appearing at an official coaching and signing session for Barclays, global title sponsor of the Barclays Premier League. The Barclays Premier League is watched in 600 million homes across 203 countries across the world. Barclays has sponsored the league since 2001. barclayspremierleague.com

 

Keegan on...

 

Next season

 

“We could finish fifth, sixth or seventh next season, if we get more things right than wrong. Because Everton have done it. And are they a bigger club than us? No. Can they get more fans in than us? No. Are they more passionate than our fans? No. Have we got players as good as them? I think yes.”

 

Thierry Henry

 

“I was asked on the radio if I could sign any player, who would it be and I said Thierry Henry. That should not be confused with me trying to sign Thierry Henry, so don't even go there. Unfortunately, that's fantasy football.”

 

The Premier League

 

“I certainly hadn't fallen out of love with the Premier League, but I still say it's all about money. The money is immense and it's there to keep the top four away from the rest of us. But it doesn't mean the game is flawed; it's still about getting players to perform with pride and passion.”

 

Transfer policy

 

“Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez are not there to say ‘we've got to sign this player', they're there to say ‘you should go and look at this player'. There will not be one player coming to this club who we don't feel is right for us.”

 

Relationship with Wise is ‘working well so far'

 

Kevin Keegan has clarified Newcastle United's transfer policy since the appointment of Dennis Wise as executive director (football), revealing yesterday that he has submitted his list of summer transfer targets to the club - and received one in return.

 

Wise, Tony Jimenez, the Newcastle vice-president (player recruitment), and Jeff Vetere, the technical co-ordinator, have been scouting in Europe and beyond, as well as establishing a network of contacts that has been absent since the previous regime left St James' Park. Keegan will now watch their recommendations play.

 

The manager hopes to sign players with Barclays Premier League experience, but knows there is a balance to be struck. “If Dennis says ‘we've seen this guy, he could be the next big one', we'll have a look at him,” he said. Keegan, who confirmed his admiration for Luka Modric, the Croatia international, insisted that the relationship has “worked very well so far. Nothing that Dennis is doing is in anyway detrimental to me doing my job.”

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article3818730.ece?Submitted=true

[Incognito]

I fucking love Kevin Keegan-he fills me with inspiration,confidence and gives me hope that we can be successful again!

[LiquidAK]

Reading this sort of stuff puts a massive smile on my face. Kev is gonna fix this club, I know it.

[pedro111]

Great, great opening quote there, now lets just see whom the sunday papers are linking us with this week! 

[SUPERTOON]

Brilliant read

[Dave]

[Luc]

I'm happy kk will be here for 15 years like.

[Pilko]

Look at Roeder, Pearson, Hodgson.

Keegan probably stole all their charisma a few years back and that's why they're such boring bastards.

I fucking love King Kev.

[Mick]

Look at Roeder, Pearson, Hodgson.

Keegan probably stole all their charisma a few years back and that's why they're such boring bastards.

I f****** love King Kev.

 

[Unbelievable]

Funny how the article starts out:

 

“I want people to dream about their football club. They should, we should all be dreamers at heart. Some people are the opposite and say 'we can't do that', but when you ask them why, they can't give a reason. Well, I say, 'Why not?'” - Kevin Keegan

 

then a little later on:

 

“We won’t be bringing in the top-notchers, I don’t think. Not because we can’t afford it, but because they probably won’t come here. We don’t offer them enough yet, because we can’t offer them European football.”

 

I love the optimism, but he's got a real fight on his hands. We can't realistically compete for players with the top 4 at this point in time, and we've lost our most recent transfer targets (Woodgate, Modric) to a team we should be aiming to consistently beat in the Premiership table. We are not exactly renowned for our great academy and scouting infrastructure (although they are apparently working on that, but it could be years or decades before we reap the rewards from those investments), so it's going to take an awful lot of investment to get back to the hights we were previously. Hence I'm going to respectfully disagree with this one Kev:

 

“The opportunity is better than it was last time and that’s no disrespect to what happened then,” he said.

 

Would love to be proved wrong..

[Baggio]

A little knowledge proves a useful thing for Kevin Keegan

 

George Caulkin

 

For Kevin Keegan, a little ignorance has brought much bliss at Newcastle United. Exiled from the game for three years after his departure from Manchester City, the manager was quick to confess on his return to Tyneside in January that he lacked detailed knowledge of opposing teams, but the benefits that followed have been evident. His players have luxuriated in greater attention.

 

Ridiculed for admitting that he had not watched a live football match since 2005 and pilloried for declaring that his lack of direct involvement in the sport should not matter, Keegan has been proved correct. While results were slow to follow, the team have put together a sequence of seven matches without defeat, securing their status in the Barclays Premier League and offering promise for the future.

 

Keegan may not have been familiar with his players, let alone others, but he brought a fresh perspective to the difficult situation he inherited from Sam Allardyce and, having worked at Newcastle in two previous spells, he understood the pressures. Few of his predecessors could say the same, but little has surprised him.

 

“I told the owner [Mike Ashley] when I took the job here that I knew this club and I knew what was required,” Keegan said. “When I went to Fulham, I couldn't say that; I just knew it had a ground on the side of the Thames and that Johnny Haynes and Jimmy Hill had played there. I didn't know anything about it. But this club I did. I wasn't coming in cold. I'd played for it, I'd managed it before.

 

“I'd played here when it was quite successful and the only thing we could do was get out of the division below and we did that. And I'd managed it when we went from the division below and could and probably should have won the Premier League. Those things I knew, and that was important.

 

“What I didn't know was what players I had today. I knew the names, but not what character they'd got and I knew all the top teams, but it was the other ones we were going to be playing - I didn't know all the players, I'll be honest with you, and I was honest enough to say that at the time. I hadn't watched a live game for three years. To me, that's not necessarily a big deal,” he said.

 

“I don't think Arsène Wenger goes to watch the opposition and I'd watched a lot of games on television. I know all the players in Europe. I know now, having been here for more than three months, that half the targets I'd like are the same people I'd have liked when I was out of the game. I was looking at them and thinking, - Wow, if I was a manager now, that's the sort of player you'd like at your club.'

 

“Being away from it was not as big a thing as the press made it out to be and then, when things weren't going well, exaggerated it. In some ways it got me focused on what we had here, what we had to work with.”

 

Richard Dunne is another player who Keegan knows well and Newcastle are hoping that the managerial upheaval at Manchester City will assist their pursuit of the Ireland centre half. Keegan views the 28-year-old, with whom he worked at City, as the ideal candidate to bolster his club's defence.

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article3842156.ece

[Yorkie]

More inspiring words and i really hope he is after Dunne.

[cp40]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

[Syrette]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

[Tooj]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

What's wrong with it like?

[Syrette]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

What's wrong with it like?

 

Every thread that has the slightest link to KK features this guy repeating how much he loves him or defending him more than he needs to. I get the impression I'm not allowed to criticise Keegan because I'm a younger supporter.

 

Then again I may be wrong, either way I'm not meaning to be rude about it. But you did ask.

[Mick]

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

 

Leave him alone, he's just making up for you who will still be worried we'll go down if we pick up anything less than a win on Monday.

[Tooj]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

What's wrong with it like?

 

Every thread that has the slightest link to KK features this guy repeating how much he loves him or defending him more than he needs to. I get the impression I'm not allowed to criticise Keegan because I'm a younger supporter.

 

Then again I may be wrong, either way I'm not meaning to be rude about it. But you did ask.

 

I don't see it that way at all. Centrepaddock is a perfect example of the relationship Keegan has with the fans up here, especially some of the older generation. If Keegan can influence grown men like that, it just shows how unique he actually is and how revered he always will be up here.

[cp40]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

What's wrong with it like?

 

Every thread that has the slightest link to KK features this guy repeating how much he loves him or defending him more than he needs to. I get the impression I'm not allowed to criticise Keegan because I'm a younger supporter.

 

Then again I may be wrong, either way I'm not meaning to be rude about it. But you did ask.

 

 

I F-king love Kevin Keegan

[Tooj]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

What's wrong with it like?

 

Every thread that has the slightest link to KK features this guy repeating how much he loves him or defending him more than he needs to. I get the impression I'm not allowed to criticise Keegan because I'm a younger supporter.

 

Then again I may be wrong, either way I'm not meaning to be rude about it. But you did ask.

 

 

I F-king love Kevin Keegan

 

Same here mate.

[Syrette]

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

 

Leave him alone, he's just making up for you who will still be worried we'll go down if we pick up anything less than a win on Monday.

 

 

I said weeks and weeks and weeks ago I'd just like to see mathematical confirmation. Never thought we'd go down but I've always been someone who likes to remove all possibilities when it came to something like that. You never know with football. I'll admit I might be more pessimistic than most but I guess thats just to counteract the inevitable disappointment I get when we don't achieve what I thought we might. I'm optimistic for our future as it stands, long as we get the right players in during the summer, and I really wish the season wasn't so close to ending now.

[Syrette]

I have Kevin Keegan Tatooed on my Heart!

 

Oh man. Give it a rest.

 

What's wrong with it like?

 

Every thread that has the slightest link to KK features this guy repeating how much he loves him or defending him more than he needs to. I get the impression I'm not allowed to criticise Keegan because I'm a younger supporter.

 

Then again I may be wrong, either way I'm not meaning to be rude about it. But you did ask.

 

 

I F-king love Kevin Keegan

 

Same here mate.

 

So do I... well aware I might look a twat for that statement, but I love the guy too, don't get me wrong. Maybe just not as explicitly or as vocally as centrepaddock.

[Mick]

 

I don't see it that way at all. Centrepaddock is a perfect example of the relationship Keegan has with the fans up here, especially some of the older generation. If Keegan can influence grown men like that, it just shows how unique he actually is and how revered he always will be up here.

 

You're right about the way the older generation feel about Keegan.  He was twice European player of the year and captain of England yet he came to our shitty club to finish his playing career.  He was possibly not the player he was in his prime but he gave us 110% when he could have been looking to take it easy, that 110% has been maintained both times he’s been here as manager.  He did anything but take it easy, he put everything into those 2 seasons and lifted this club from a club that was going nowhere to a club that could once again return to the top league, we gave him a testimonial and he gave the cash raised from the full house against Liverpool to the club, he did that for us, the fans.

 

He came back as manager when we were probably at our lowest ever and according to some, could have gone out of business.  He didn't only match what he did as a player, he pissed all over what he had done before.  He left us with the 2nd best team in the Premiership, I doubt anybody could have guessed what he would do here as manager.

 

I couldn't give a shit what happen this time, Keegan will never be seen as a failure at this club, the bloke bleeds black and white as much as any of us, possibly more so considering we turn up once or twice a week, it's his life.  This nutty club and nutty manager were made for each other and I don't know how that happened, nor do I care.

 

[Mick]

 

 

I said weeks and weeks and weeks ago I'd just like to see mathematical confirmation. Never thought we'd go down but I've always been someone who likes to remove all possibilities when it came to something like that. You never know with football. I'll admit I might be more pessimistic than most but I guess thats just to counteract the inevitable disappointment I get when we don't achieve what I thought we might. I'm optimistic for our future as it stands, long as we get the right players in during the summer, and I really wish the season wasn't so close to ending now.

 

A few weeks ago I couldn't wait for the season to finish and would have been happy to see it ended at any time during the last 8 weeks, now I can't wait for next season.

[Tooj]

 

 

I said weeks and weeks and weeks ago I'd just like to see mathematical confirmation. Never thought we'd go down but I've always been someone who likes to remove all possibilities when it came to something like that. You never know with football. I'll admit I might be more pessimistic than most but I guess thats just to counteract the inevitable disappointment I get when we don't achieve what I thought we might. I'm optimistic for our future as it stands, long as we get the right players in during the summer, and I really wish the season wasn't so close to ending now.

 

A few weeks ago I couldn't wait for the season to finish and would have been happy to see it ended at any time during the last 8 weeks, now I can't wait for next season.

 

Just wait for the transfer window to open.