Can Kevin Keegan bring glory to Newcastle United?
In selecting Kevin Keegan as the next Newcastle United manager, Mike Ashley went for the guy with passion and experience (with passion playing a major role here) - and the last man to bring Newcastle United within touching distance of winning the Premier League.
If Kev is going to do a repeat (or do one better), he has one helluva task ahead of him - the league is tougher, the top four (or top 3, rather) are impenetrable and a host of rising clubs (with years of team-building behind them) stand between Newcastle United and a European place.
The expectations will be ridiculously high and that’s a shame because KK, and Newcastle United, deserve better. Here’s a club that needed massive rebuilding from the ground up, a club where the most recent rebuilding process was uprooted and thrown away because Mike Ashley wanted his own man in (Kev is probably better than Sam anyway, but only time and future Newcastle United performances will tell us for sure), and now the rest of the season will be spent rebuilding again.
With Keegan, Newcastle United fans will be more tolerant - they’ll give him time to rebuild, at least this season and this summer, but come 08/09 and the pressure on the new Newcastle United manager will be massive. He will be expected to put out a team that fights AND entertains - two traits that Sam Allardyce’s Newcastle United lacked. If he can do one of the two, he can expect more time. If he can pull off both, then he’ll get more time from the fans.
Keegan is also the one person whose position would not be overly threatened by the fans’ support for Shearer - but already there are reports that Shearer may be brought in some sort of advisory capacity or perhaps as a second to Keegan with a view of him taking over in the long run (and that would create a whole new set of speculation).
At the end of the day though, Kevin Keegan needs to deliver results, and that means Uefa Cup qualification - and that’s the only question people will be asking: can he bring glory to Newcastle United?
Also See: Shearer’s shadow looms large over Newcastle United managers.
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Hmmm… I think he’ll do a great job for Newcastle or do terribly bad, Just becaus Kev delivered last time he was managing Newcastle Utd it was (As you stated Ahmed) a lot easier to get in the Top 4 as the league was not so hard and Newcastle didn’t really have that “We haven’t won the league for ages - this manager better do it!” Kinda thing going around.
I’m still not sure Kevin Keegan is the man to bring the ‘glory’ back to Newcastle… It really is a shame though and I do like the Geordies.
I’m glad to see Keegan back and if he is properly bankrolled and supported he should do well for us again. However, as much as I love Shearer too this is not the time for him to rejoin the staff of NUFC, otherwise as soon as Keegan hits his first difficult patch people will start undermining and unsettling him by demanding that he should declare when he’s going to hand over to Shearer. It’ll end up being the Blair/Brown situation all over again. Let Shearer learn the manager’s trade elsewhere (just as he did as a player) and then we’ll gladly welcome him back as a fully fledged, experienced manager at some time in the future.
Newcastle (both the club management and the fans) are deluded fools who think that they are a top European club. They’re not. Sorry to be blunt, but they belong to the second or even third level of the Premier League, ie below the big 4 and below the likes of Everton, Man City, Spurs etc etc. Sam Allardyce was no genius but like everyone, he needed time which nobody gave him. Bolton under him almost got relegated once but next season they qualified for the UEFA cup. So just what did anybody expect from him in such a short while at St.James Park? Kevin Keegan was a great player and as a coach he almost delivered the goods at Newcastle, can he do it again? He has ability but I dont think the owners and the fans have enough patience. Two bad games in a row(one of them at home) and he could be on the top of the abuse-lists at St.James Park………..
Everyone knows by now what they get with Keegan. His arrival should definitely be good for morale and give the club a lift. On the positive side Keegan is likeable and has charisma. He wears his heart on his sleeve and builds close relationships with fans and players, making him well liked and supported.
However, this is also his downfall. Keegan desperately NEEDS the adulation and support of those around him. Typical of those of his emotional make-up, he is thin skinned and (as he has shown in all his previous roles) when the going gets tough and the ‘love’ of the masses is withheld, he bolts for the door immediately.
He trades close relationships for tough management which ultimately leads to problems.
He will definitely liven things up though and is never boring. Accused of being tactically naiive, he hopefully has learnt some lessons and will concentrate on sorting out the defence instead of concentrating totally on flair players.
As with all managers his relative success will depend on the money made available and how he spends it. With sufficient resources he should be able to get Newcastle into the top 6.
Hi, i love football and am a big man u supporter. I like Kevin keegan because he is a honest, big hearted person with a creative vision of the way football should be played. Just remember he gaves us some of the most exciting matches in premiership history. This is all up to the fans- you have to give him at least 3 years- look at moyes, hughes,o neill havnt won anything making the team better. the fact is that their is a hierachacal structure at present to the premiership- there are 4 team out ahead. this is not great for the premiership but it is what it is.
saying all of this- newcastle have got a range experienced youth and creative players. dont buy youth- buy an old head for the back line to boss it around and get makalele from cheslea, to plug midfield- alan smith will carry keegans message- a player who plays with heart.
keegan will do well as long as the fans let him.
The articles doesn’t say anything that we do not know. Could the writer be a bit more explicit about his predictions? In short, he is just sitting on the fence. How much of footbal do ya know, kid??
Ooh Ahmed thats a heartbreaker right there bob, “kid” it seems. That hurts man(both you and us).
To Daisy Hall the kid you’re referring to practically runs this site, and you’re pretty new here aint you?
The problem I feel lies in Mike Ashley. He, like his predecessor Freddie Shepherd, doesn’t understand modern day timescales in football.
He wants instant success, and isn’t prepared to wait, and let a manager gradually build up a strong team.
daisy hall,since u r supposedly the granddad of predictions,write one article incorporatin ur explicit conclusions.im sure the kid ll publish it….