Keegan is keeping it real for players

Mar 17 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Newcastle United have fallen head first into the relegation bear pit but Kevin Keegan is adamant they have the qualities needed to survive it. Chief Sports Writer Luke Edwards reports.

IT was all supposed to be so different two months ago when Kevin Keegan made his triumphant return as Newcastle United manager. But, eight games into his new reign, the Magpies have the worst form in the Premier League and are just above the relegation zone.

Keegan, the great motivator and eternal optimist, has presided over a disturbingly-rapid slide towards disaster as his side desperately struggle to score goals and look utterly incapable of keeping them out at the other end.

In eight games, United have scored three and conceded 20. It is relegation form although, to be fair to Keegan, he has never tried to claim it is anything else.

“I’ve always said that until you get to 40 points in the Premier League, you’re not safe,” said Keegan, whose motivational powers are being sorely tested during a dismal run of form which has seen the Magpies fail to win a league game since December 15.

“I’ve always backed that up by saying that West Ham got 42 or 43 and still went down. I’ve always said that and nothing’s changed there. I’ve spent the time that we’ve had this week looking at things and saying: ‘This is the situation we’re in – this is what we need to do.”

With a squad full of big-name players, with big reputations and the wage packets to match, Newcastle should not be in the situation they are in.

But they are and the worry for the club’s supporters is that too many of them are not the sort of players who can handle themselves in a relegation scrap when points, not performances, are ultimately all that matter.

Yet Keegan is willing to defend the reputations of his under-performing stars, particularly against the charge that too many of them do not care about what has happened this season.

He said: “I do think they’re hurting. Whilst I can understand both Press and public questioning players sometimes – not just at this club but at other clubs as well – I can only vouch for the ones that are here.

“The training has been good and I can see what they’re like when they get beat – they’re devastated. There’s none of this: ‘Oh well, it doesn’t really matter’. If I saw that, I would tell them and I would tell you. They’re a good set of lads trying very, very hard but, at the moment, they just need a break.”

A “break” as Keegan puts it would certainly be welcome against Birmingham City tonight, one of Newcastle relegation rivals but one who, before the defeat at Portsmouth last week, had gone four games unbeaten, including a draw against Arsenal and a 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur. Yet, while the United dressing room is full of internationals, players who have been in the Champions League, won league titles and FA Cups, it also has players who know what it is like to be in this situation.

Unfortunately, most of them also know what it is like to go down. James Milner, Mark Viduka and Alan Smith failed to keep Leeds United in the Premier League, Habib Beye was relegated in France with Strasbourg, Nicky Butt was on loan at Birmingham City when they crashed out of the top flight and Damien Duff went down with Blackburn Rovers. For Keegan, half of the battle he has is to ensure the players do not buckle under the pressure and there is little doubt that confidence, or rather the lack of it, is one of Newcastle’s major weaknesses at the moment.

“What you don’t do at a football club is suddenly burn your bridges,” said Keegan. “You keep everybody upbeat and you try to tell them the truth. You try to get the messages over, and you try to tell them what reality is just in case they don’t know.

“But I think the players know where they are and know what they have to do. And I honestly believe they’re more than capable of doing that. That’s what we’ve been telling them. We’ve been working on positive things because that’s what you have to do.”

And Keegan’s message is that whatever has happened this season, whatever problems there have been before, they are nothing more than history. Newcastle’s season starts now with nine games left. “It’s a nine-game season now. We can’t do anything about what’s gone. There’s no point thinking about what’s happened in the past. You can get disappointed or talk about bad luck in a couple of the games, but to be honest with you, they’re gone.

“With nine games, there’s still 27 points to play for. We have five of those games away, and four of them at home, and a lot of those games – Birmingham away, Reading, Sunderland and Fulham at home – are against teams that are down there with us. We know what we have got to do and the players know what is needed. It’s in our hands.’’