Stirring stuff

[The Fish 11080]

George Caulkin

 

“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.

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“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.”

[Fop 1]

Yup.

[Tom 14021]

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.”

 

It's nice to hear a manager show some balls and actually slag off another club even just a little bit.

[Guest alex]

"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."

Classic Keegan

[The Fish 11080]

it's just nice to hear a guy talk straight with the media, instead of mono syllabic answers to guard their own back.

[Asprilla 96]

 

 

 

 

 

The man is a legend.

 

 

 

 

[Lazarus 0]

George Caulkin

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.

 

[Hadrian 0]

Its like he never left !!! these last few years (bar bobby ) have just been one big hangover !

this is where the 'its got tobe one of us' mentality some toon fans have with managers comes from , kev and bobby always knew not to talk shit to us .

Edited April 29, 2008 by Hadrian

[NJS 4446]

Every time the man speaks he reminds me why football used to be so important to me and makes me want to go back there.

 

Not necessarily a good thing but fuck it.

[TheMoog 0]

It's the type of manager Keegan is for us, his heart is so much in to the club and the fans he IS the messiah