Michael Walker explores the reasons why Kevin Keegan still has such a hold on the affections and imagination of Newcastle United supporters
Queen Elizabeth visits Tyneside soon as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations, but one cannot help thinking it will be too late. Geordieland's true monarch will have come and gone by then. King Kev makes his first high-profile return to St James' Park tomorrow, Newcastle's royal event of the year. Even if Newcastle United were to win the Premiership this season, there would still be those here who consider Kevin Keegan's return as the moment of 2002.
Keegan will not be surprised. He probably knew Newcastle's evening paper, the Chronicle, would run a daily feature called "Countdown to Keegan" when Manchester City were drawn against Newcastle in the fifth round of the FA Cup. When Keegan speaks to the press after the game, he will be standing opposite a framed copy of that newspaper from the day Keegan signed as a player in 1982. It says simply: "Here he is!" Here he'll be again.
Beneath Keegan's picture in that newspaper is the story of his Geordie grandfather Frank, a miner who became a hero during a pit collapse in Durham on this very day, February 16th, 1909. Keegan's father Joe was also a Geordie and Keegan always regarded himself as one, despite being born in Yorkshire. "Your roots are your roots," he said.
Since the day he left as manager five years and one month ago, Keegan has revisited those roots for Peter Beardsley's testimonial, but he did not speak publicly. He did not speak when he departed as manager, so there is unfinished business.
How different his first exit was. As a Newcastle player in 1984, Keegan left St James' Park in a helicopter, his number seven shirt dropped from the sky to the hordes below. That is the drama Geordies associate with Keegan, and why people queued at St James' Park for tickets for tomorrow night's game.
If this is baffling to those outside the north-east who perceive Keegan's time as Newcastle manager as an expensive failed experiment, and who think of him as an inadequate England manager, then the views of five reliable witnesses of Keegan's Tyneside era may help explain Keegan's unique hold on the area.
Glenn Roeder, now the manager of West Ham, was a player with Keegan at St James'. "Mainly we avoided the town because whenever Kevin went there he was mobbed. But then he was mobbed wherever he went. Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I joined Newcastle partly because of Kevin Keegan, to play with him. He didn't disappoint.
"That's why the people loved him. He created a carnival. Kevin made himself part of Geordie folklore; I think he means to Newcastle what Shankly meant to Liverpool."
If that sounds like hyperbole to some, given Shankly and Keegan's respective trophy tally, Mark Lawrenson, who was a coach under Keegan at Newcastle, is not one of them. "That is valid," Lawrenson said, "because Kevin gave people pride. He gave the region a smile.
"When he was Newcastle manager, there was always something happening and so the fans thought they always had hope. To be in Newcastle the day they beat Man U 5-0, it was like they had won the World Cup with nine men.
"Even what is considered his biggest mistake, scrapping the reserves, I could see the logic in that. Barcelona don't have a reserve team. But the question is, would a local lad like Michael Carrick have joined Newcastle if they had a reserve team? I think he would. You only have to miss out on one good one and it's a mistake.
"But Kevin was very open with the fans. He sold Andy Cole but he came down on to the steps and explained why, asked them to believe he knew where he was going and to stay with him. That inspires great trust. Sunday night will be one of those occasions when you want to be in your seat five minutes before Keegan walks down the tunnel."
Keegan's last game in charge was an FA Cup tie, at Charlton. It was on a Sunday and a morning newspaper had broken the news Keegan had offered to resign. Twenty-four hours later Keegan was gone. "I am a bit reluctant to use the analogy, but it was like someone close had died," Lawrenson said of that morning's training. "I think Peter Beardsley did say that. It was surreal."
"It was a total shock," said Rob Lee, who scored the last goal of the Keegan era at Charlton and was, according to Keegan, his best ever signing."I wish I knew the truth why he left. I still don't know. He saved the club from extinction and they should have done everything to keep him. If he'd stayed Newcastle would have won the league by now."
Jonathan Tulloch, a novelist who wrote The Season Ticket about two poor young lads from Gateshead trying to get into St James' Park, offered an insight into the conflict Keegan was encountering at boardroom level. "We approached Kevin about making a charity record and he was brilliant," said Tulloch. "He was referring to the directors as 'them up there' and said quite a few things about them. I think he was upset Newcastle United were being turned into a trade name. Freddie Fletcher [then chief executive] came in and was spitting feathers. You could see the friction.
"He means a lot to the area because he understood that for them football was about self-esteem. Basically one of the oldest parts of the industrial world was in decline and football represented the last flower of that old sense of co-operation and community.
"That's why the name Keegan represents something. A dynamic personality, he touches people."
Guardian Service
