Fans salute one man who feels their pain

Sep 3 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

KEVIN Keegan rode back into a euphoric Tyneside in January after his shock return to the St James’s Park hotseat was announced.

On that Wednesday night, what was expected to be a low-key cup game against Stoke City turned into a celebration matching any seen at Newcastle United in the modern era.

But his first nine games as manager went without a win and included drubbings at the hands of Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United.

However, one thing Keegan was guaranteed was the time and patience of a fanbase who will never forget the good times he had twice provided before.

That run of failures ended with a 1-1 draw at Birmingham City, a night which saw Keegan’s new Newcastle side begin to find the form that would see them to Premiership safety last season and make a solid start to the new term.

But the loyalty of Newcastle fans has been tested not by their manager, but by owner Mike Ashley’s recruitment of staff who do not talk to the supporters and whose individual roles at the club have never been satisfactorily explained.

They include Dennis Wise, one of the most unpopular visiting players to appear at St James’s Park in the past 20 years.

Angry fans at the ground yesterday said they would never go back to the ground were Wise to be appointed manager. Others sat outside Keegan’s home in Darras Hall with an ‘Ashley Out’ banner.

Yesterday’s drama came after reports Keegan had met the owner on Monday night after a disappointing end to the summer transfer window.

And amid shock in the North East, punters were preparing to collect their winnings on bets made back in January that Keegan would not last the distance.

Cynics pointed to his failure to complete the job at Newcastle United the first time around, and during that five-year spell he was persuaded not to resign on three separate occasions.

The first came in March 1992, a month into the job, when a row over transfer cash saw him claim the club was “not like it said in the brochure”. In May 1996 he offered to resign after being beaten to the title by Manchester United. Then in December that year he again offered to leave after a seven-match losing streak.

Now punters are looking to collect on bets at 4-1 that Keegan wouldn’t last a year in his new job, and at 10-1 on him to be the Premiership's first managerial casualty this season.

He left as Newcastle manager in January 1997 after five rollercoaster years in which he brought some of the biggest names and some of the best football to Tyneside that fans had ever seen.

They were rightly nicknamed ‘The Entertainers’ for the verve and freedom Keegan inspired in his Newcastle team, which he took from the brink of relegation to the third tier of English football all the way to the Champions League.

When appointed by Sir John Hall in 1992, he was welcomed back to Tyneside as the England hero who had been signed by Arthur Cox in 1982.

Scoring on his debut, he helped a Newcastle team that included future internationals Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley earn promotion back to the top flight.

Fellow Newcastle legend Beardsley went on to credit Keegan with much of his development as a youngster, and then re-signed for the club when Keegan the manager took the team into the Premier League. The final match of his playing career saw Keegan, Waddle and Beardsley all score for Newcastle before ‘Special K’ bowed down in adoration of the Newcastle fans and was flown away from St James’s Park in a helicopter.

After leaving Newcastle for a second time he became Fulham manager, and after getting them promoted took the England job.

But he resigned at Wembley after losing 1-0 to Germany, then a spell at Manchester City ended by mutual agreement in 2005, when Keegan announced his retirement from football management.

During the next three years his connections to football were limited to the Soccer Circus he created in Glasgow.

Billed as the world’s first interactive indoor soccer attraction for children and families, it took nine years to develop before opening in September 2006.

Three years after walking out of Wembley, he was back on Tyneside and 11-year-old songs of ‘Keegan is our King’ and ‘Walking in a Keegan Wonderland’ returned to the Gallowgate.

He was reunited with old sidekicks Terry McDermott and the man who first brought him to Newcastle, Arthur Cox, who recently stepped down without any public explanation from the club.

Speaking to the press after his return for a third spell, the man who first inspired promotion to the top flight as a player told reporters that people from outside the area “didn’t understand” Newcastle United – but he did.

It struck a chord immediately with supporters who had grown frustrated to the extreme under previous manager Sam Allardyce.

Comments like that are difficult to explain, and often difficult to argue, when Newcastle supporters are challenged by rival fans about their loyalty to both the club and to Keegan.

But those either old or lucky enough to have seen his three arrivals on Tyneside still speak about him with glazed eyes.

Yesterday’s story unfolded during a day of rumour and counter-rumour, silence from St James’s Park, and the arrival of hordes of angry fans at the ground. Angry at whatever had happened – whether Keegan had left or, if not, why nobody had told them what was going on.

They were rightly nicknamed ‘The Entertainers’ for the verve and freedom Keegan inspired