No crisis as boss prepares for future

May 9 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

NEWCASTLE United manager Kevin Keegan heads for today’s meeting with owner Mike Ashley adamant that he will remain at St James’s Park for at least the duration of his three-year contract.

The United manager ends another eventful week with an impromptu summit with Ashley in London aimed at mapping out a big summer for the club in terms of player recruitment and retention.

But far from the crisis talks that they were portrayed as by some yesterday the subject of the manager’s future at St James’s Park will not be on the agenda – and stepping down is the last thing on the mind of a bullish Keegan who continues to insist the club is on the verge of “exciting times”.

The Journal was contacted by a senior member of the United hierarchy last night and has been assured this morning’s get-together is “not a crisis meeting.”

Rather than discuss the manager’s position, the intention is to inform Keegan of the size of the transfer budget at his disposal this summer and to confirm that contract negotiations with key players such as Michael Owen and Steven Taylor will begin in the next few days.

With executive director (football) Dennis Wise also present at the talks – organised to ensure Keegan remains part of the recruitment process – in London, a list of targets will be finalised and a plan put in place to try to secure them with several bids already lined up.

It is also understood that Keegan will not be asked to explain the comments he made immediately after the 2-0 defeat by Chelsea last weekend when he argued Newcastle would not qualify for the Champions League in the next three years. Keegan refused to go into detail about the agenda for the meeting when he faced the media yesterday but privately the manager is relaxed about the prospect of a rare face-to-face with the billionaire businessman who appointed him at the turn of the year.

That news is likely to soothe the worst fears of the United faithful, as is the fact that Keegan is already looking to the future of a club that he has little chance to re-model since he was appointed as Sam Allardyce’s successor.

While Keegan might have painted a bleak picture when discussing his team’s chances of breaking into the top four, he has insisted that his passion for the sizeable task ahead remains undimmed.

“I’ve got three years (of my contract). I am looking forward to the next three years – at least,” Keegan said.

And asked whether not being able to break into the top four had taken away his enjoyment of the job, the Newcastle United manager insisted it had not. “The challenge is there for all of us. It’s a great, you know, it hasn’t taken anything away for me despite reading stuff to the contrary,” he said.

“I think we have exciting times ahead. If you don’t like a challenge you can’t be in football. But if you are a light-welterweight, you don’t say you are going to win the heavyweight championship of the world. You know we have to build our muscles up first.”

Keegan’s reflections on his first few months since returning also betray his long-term view of the job ahead.

“For me, I have really enjoyed coming back to the club I love. I am surprised how it has moved on. It’s fantastic, the training ground, you can see money being spent on new pitches because the investment was not put in last year,” he said.

“So lots of things are very positive about this club and a few little negative things from different areas but you take half of them with a pinch of salt. From where I sit, it is almost laughable.”

Meanwhile, the manager dismissed reports linking him with West Brom’s out-of-contract midfielder Zoltan Gera and insisted that the club’s recruitment drive was continuing in earnest after missing out to Tottenham in the chase for Croatia midfield star Luka Modric.