Kevin Keegan: No one finished a winner

Oct 5 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

KEVIN Keegan has admitted there were “no winners” in his dispute with Newcastle United’s discredited owner Mike Ashley – and insisted the club would still be in the Premier League if he had remained in charge.

Keegan won his claim for constructive dismissal and £2m in compensation but said that he felt like a loser because he was no longer manager of a “club he loved” – and wished that the dispute had never happened.

The former Newcastle manager insisted that the verdict and subsequent findings by the Premier League arbitration panel were made public – sending shockwaves through football.

It was revealed that the club’s former executive director (football) Dennis Wise forced the signing of Ignacio Gonzalez on Keegan as a favour to a couple of South American agents and told him he could watch clips of the player on YouTube.

Keegan looked upon the judgement as vindication but felt that the loss of his job – as well as Newcastle losing their Premier League status – meant that no one had emerged unscathed from a dark chapter in the club’s history.

The ex-England boss, who returned to the public eye by taking on pundit duties for ESPN’s coverage of Sunderland’s trip to Manchester United this weekend, has now set his heart on a return to club management away from the North East.

“It wasn’t a great situation. I don’t think there are really any winners in it but we’ve got to move on now,” he said. “The club have got to move on and I’ve got to move on. It’s out in the open.

“An independent arbitration panel have made a judgement. People can read it, it’s out there for everyone to read so there’s nothing been hidden.

“What I wanted was really my job. The thing I’ve lost is managing the club that I love so that’s why I say there have been no winners.

“But life goes on, things happen, you meet people sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t in football. And this didn’t work.”