We owe a great league to give it our best

Apr 29 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

THE competitive part of Newcastle United’s season may have effectively ended weeks ago, but Kevin Keegan is still promising a grandstand finish to another turbulent campaign.

United’s hopes of Europe evaporated at the turn of the year and they banished last lingering doubts about relegation last month, but they can still play a vital role in two team’s fates before the curtain falls on the season.

Resurgent Chelsea visit St James’s Park on Monday battling to wrest the Premier League title from Manchester United’s grasp, and Keegan takes his team to Everton on the final day of the campaign with the home side embroiled in a race for the final Uefa Cup spot. That means other teams will be looking to United to do them a favour, a burden Keegan is only too happy to take on.

His number one priority remains taking Newcastle into next season in a position of strength, but he is a subscriber to the Premier League virtue of fair play.

“We want to go to Everton on the final day and finish the season on a high for the players to go away on holiday, for the staff because they need a boost and for the owner and mainly the fans,” he said. “But what has really come home to me since I came back into the league is that the Premier League is the most fantastic league in the world for lots of different reasons.

“Not because it’s always the best football, not because it’s always the best entertainment but it’s the most competitive. Fulham can go to Man City and win. Man City can go to Old Trafford and win. We can go to Tottenham and win and then we can lose at home to one of the smaller clubs, and so can the rest.”

Chelsea’s visit has added some spice to the final home game of the season and, even though Manchester United would hardly win any popularity contests inside St James’s Park, Avram Grant’s men can expect no favours on Monday. That, says Keegan, is another reason why the division remains so good.

“It’s a great league, we’ve privileged to be part of it, whether we watch it, play in it or whatever. That’s the thing I like about this league – there’s an integrity to it.

“If we were in Spain now we’d be getting an offer of a bonus from Manchester United for beating Chelsea. Definitely. It happens and it’s allowed as well. That can never happen here. If we beat Chelsea it’s because we deserve to and if they beat us, they deserve to. If Manchester United win the title they’ll have deserved to and the same for Chelsea.

“I don’t think it’s our cup final, it’s their cup final and our chance to see how we’ve progressed rather than a cup final. But it’s a game I’d like to win.”