Keegan ‘I’d Love It’ Returns To Geordie-land. Heh!

Now this is in no way related to Man Utd from a purely news point of view. But long timers would never forget the history that accompanies this remarriage with an old foe — if we could call him that. Kevin Keegan has overseen the best period of Newcastle’s recent history, but he’s also been a figure that induces smiles on Reds fans’ faces.

When you do that with footballers like he said about Leeds… I’ve kept really quiet, but I’ll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that – we have not resorted to that. But I’ll tell ya – you can tell him now if you’re watching it – we’re still fighting for this title, and he’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and… and I tell you honestly, I’d love it if we beat them, just love it!

Oh yes! That unforgettable rant. How he would have loved it had he beat us. How many ifs and buts there. He had to eat those words immediately as Newcastle dropped points and we won the remaining two games to complete a famous comeback — something that was to haunt Alan “you can’t win the League with kids” Hansen, till date. Oh, we also won the FA Cup that season.

But back to Keegan. Is he the right person to manage Newcastle? Well, at the moment, no one is a right person to manage a club where the fans expect way too much, too soon to do any good. The league back in the early Premiership days was different. Kevin Keegan’s all out attacking football could work then because he did have the personnel who were better, for most part, than the rest of the league. With the part timers that he has right now, not to mention a perennially crocked striker, things couldn’t be any worse, surely. Mike Ashley has been bowing down to fan pressure and that is not the job of a sound businessman — although in his defence, he did try to sign Redknapp.

Keegan’s return would certainly represent a short term solution as eventually Alan “I am happy talking shite for the BBC” Shearer would come to manage the club — which is something that will affect decision making in St. James’ Park.

Ex-Man Utd defender Gary Pallister had this to say about the Shearer factor:

Everyone knows what the Newcastle fans think of Shearer. It’s like a love affair and they’re desperate for their favourite son to come back and save them. The problem is, every other manager knows this and that’s got to make the job less attractive. If Sparky took the job and six months down the line they go through a sticky patch, you know the fans are going to start singing Shearer’s name in the stands. His spectre will haunt any other manager. There’s pressure on all the Premier League managers but anyone who takes over at Newcastle who isn’t Shearer is in an almost unwinnable position. I don’t even think the Newcastle fans are particularly fickle – they’re just desperate for Shearer to manage the team.

For the rest of his article head over here to read his column published on Soccerlens.

Back to Keegan though, his return to Newcastle is welcome as we have something to look forward to when we face the Barcodes. His antics and post match comments are fun to watch, and we’ll hope we get to see more such comic moments.

Once more, here’s the video of that famous rant.