Keegan’s toughest challenge is to attract quality players to Newcastle United
So Keggy Keegan’s back on the Tyne. The Toon Army are partying like it’s 1999 and the red tops are thanking the great editor in the sky. It’s a football fairytale and if all the work shy script writers over in Hollywood hadn’t recently downed pens, I’m sure they’d already be working on the film.
Reality, however, will have to kick in eventually. The tepid performance at St James’ Park against Bolton on Saturday evening was merely the thin edge of the wedge for Keggy and as he contemplates the enormous task in front of him, The Messiah could be forgiven for reaching for the Valium.
Newcastle’s biggest problem is the curse. No-one knows how it happened – maybe Michael Owen was rude to a gypsy on the Metro, maybe Shay Given’s a secret Satanist – but the fact remains St James’ is cursed. Players who dare to pull on the back and white shirt suddenly become inexplicably rubbish.
Let’s examine the evidence. Albert Luque, Alan Smith, Claudio Cacapa, Damien Duff, Patrick Kluivert, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Michael Owen, Nicky Butt, Titus Bramble, Laurent Robert, Hugo Viana, Carl Cort, Alain Goma, Elena Marcelino, Christian Bassedas. They’ve all seen their reputations go down the pan after signing on the dotted line. Some have never recovered.
In short, Newcastle has become a graveyard of careers. It happened to strikers at Liverpool (Morientes, El Hadji Diouf, Cisse, Kuyt, Baros) before Fernando Torres’ arrival and Keggy has to find a way to banish the bad juju that is hanging over the club. Maybe if he sacrificed Joey Barton on the half-way line…
The point is, right now what sane player would actually want to sign for Newcastle? Obviously the chance to trouser some of Mike Ashley’s millions wouldn’t go amiss but in purely footballing terms, it’s not exactly an enticing prospect, is it? Fancy ruining your reputation? Yeah? Well come and play for Newcastle!
The weekend papers were predictably awash with transfer speculation, linking Keggy with big-money moves for Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov. Laugh? I haven’t stopped. At the moment Newcastle would be lucky if Titus Bramble agreed to come back.
Maybe Keggy will be able to entice some new players to Tyneside. There’ll probably won’t be many dull moments with him in the hot seat but unless Newcastle start living up to their own expectations, he’s going to struggle in the transfer market. He desperately needs reinforcements to add the flair the fans crave but a big fat chequebook alone may not be enough.
Written by Ian Spragg (from Sport Media Solutions) and originally published here on 4sportsake.com, a Soccerlens partner.
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Discussion - 11 Responses
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Fantastic article… I really enjoyed reading that.
Anyway, sadly, I think money talks too loudly in the world of football, particularly where Mike Ashley is involved - it would seem he’ll stop at nothing to make Newcastle a better team.
Carlo Cudicini is the prime example that a player will happily sit around with a massive pay cheque while their career goes down the pan, and I can see that happening with more than just a couple of players at St James’.
How could a player be demoralised and suddenly become crap playing in front of 52000 passionate fans??
Players who like you said just want to pick up a paycheque and couldn’t give a damn about the club, just like most of the managers who have ‘managed’ the club.
However now we have a manger who will make it his goal in life to help bring success to Newcastle and don’t you think his first pre requisite for any of his buys will be that they want to wholeheartedly and understand what it means to play for the club.
There’s too many players out there who don’t give a damn who are where they play, as long as they get paid at the end of the week. We don’t want them at this club and I don’t think KK will tolerate them!! Just like he did when he first managed the club.
Don’t have a lot of time to reply, but I’d just mention that some of the players you mention were already going downwards in their career (e.g. Kluivert), some were never THAT great (Cort, Bassedas) and a club surrounded by uncertainty and lacking confidence is by no means the best place to flourish. The injury issue is by far a bigger one, since it has accounted for the likes of Owen, who has never actually performed that awfully.
And many teams are in your “plight”. Spurs, for example, who ruin many an exciting youngster (Blondel is a perfect example), as well as paralyzing the careers of Postiga, Rebrov, and others.
Tell ya what, you f****n little s**t its the second time today you have printed this crap. Soccer lens are a joke to let clearly BITTER pricks as this do and say what they want. When you have 2 biased as fck prints from “guest author(s)”.
Good article for raising bait – but you lack research. I once believed our club caused career suicide until wising-up to Fat Freddy, who’s incapable of staffing McDonalds, never mind a premiership club – his forte is scrap. He hired and fired wrong managers, giving rise to reputation and criticism. For that seen on the pitch, what of what we couln’t see i.e. staff, training and player development which beggars belief? So where Fat Freddy was the backbone of crowd impatience, Keegan brought value to our expensive season tickets and attracted elite players before reaching Champion’s league positioning. It’s a mammoth task for Keegan to do it all over again, but a window of opportunity beckons via new ownership and learning. Take head the Fat Freddy era is over – it was his reputation. Now give us a break.
All of the players mentioned were past their best when they joined, and many were never world class in the first place. Many were also foreign and unable to adapt to the English game after one or two good seasons abroad. To really raise the standard of the club Newcastle are either going to have to splash out on world class players (as Chelsea did when they received Abramovitchs millions) or unearth potential world class players (like Erikkson seems to be doing). Unfortunately there isn’t the money for the former and Keegan is not renowned for his record in the transfer market and while in the past he brought British at todays inflated prices that does not work anymore.
For sure Keegan will be able to raise morale and get more out of a limited club so that they achieve a better league position. But if they want to be challenging for honours he’s going to have to reverse the trend and actually bring some quality players to St James’ Park. Not the average players I’ve seen touted so far.
It was Keegan’s reign which actually brought in some quality players i.e. Beardsley, Cole, Ferdinand, Ginola, Shearer etc etc. Before you slate Asprilla he scored some world-class goals and Gillespie caught the eye of Barcelona! Only the media and starving journalists like Ian Spragg claim we’ve touted Tom, Dick and Harry, and this is simply because they have little clout to get past stadium gates. They leraned of Keegan’s appointment second hand …just as they will of his first signings.
The trouble with Newcastle is very complex: you have an ‘injury curse’, you cannot get good players to play well for you and, most importantly, your board does not have patience.
Keegan will have a transfer kitty, he will spend the money but eventually, after doing the impossible and leading Newcastle to a 7th place finish next season, he will be told that he is not good enough, get fired and so the cycle will start again. Keegan again in 2013!!
Going back on the issue that players do not play well when at Newcastle, I have to ask: how on earth do you expect them to play well when you change managers like socks? A player needs time to adapt to whatever he is being asked to play (from a tactical point of view) before he can make some impact.
Keegan should be paying attention to the Africa Cup of Nations. Pascal Feindouno for example was immense in Guinea’s 3-2 win over Morocco (before getting sent off) and is exactly the kind of playmaker to bring some magcic back to Newcastle’s midfield. He’s also unhappy at St. Etienne (because his teammates are rubbish) and keen to move.
Newcastle do not have an impatient board, as the old board of directors were replaced with the new ownership of the club. Now that the new owner has his own men in charge, from top to bottom, I think everyone (supporters and non-supporters) should give them time and not pre-judge them. Lets just see what happens.
NUFC is really starting over. I think we have a manager that people are willing to back. Allardyce was never that man, supporters were very frustrated with his negative tactics. The club is going to have to be patient and work hard to recover from the Sheppard era. Ashley has got the club out of debt, which is a massive boost and there is a strong interest in developing young talent. Those are both very good things. The Jan xfer window is tricky and I’m glad that we haven’t just bought someone for the sake of bringing in fresh faces. So of the lads are already playing better and the side is looking better in just a few games. Ashely and Mort understand that this is going to take time and Keegan will get their backing. The only goal for this season should be to make a decent finish. Work hard to bring in some solid talent (primarily in the midfield) over the summer and start next season fresh.