Kevin Keegan and Newcastle United: Twenty Years Old

Twenty years ago this week Kevin Keegan became manager of Newcastle United. At the time of his appointment, we were second from bottom in the Second Division (now the Championship; the second-tier of English football) and in danger of falling into the third-tier for the first time in the club's history: Ossie Ardiles had, in his time as our manager, given debuts to a number of young players and had us attempting to play passing, attacking football, but it wasn't working well, our results were poor, our attendances had fallen, even with Sir John Hall's backing the financial future of the club appeared uncertain.

Keegan was appointed February 5, 1992. His first game was February 8, in which we beat Bristol City, at St James' Park, 3-0. Bolstered by a few signings, Brian Kilcline the most heralded, we managed to stay up; and the following season, 1992/93, playing in what had then become Division One, we led the table following an eleven-match victorious streak at the start of the season and were eventually promoted as Champions. To Kilcline, David Kelly, Gavin Peacock, Lee Clark, Steve Watson, Steve Howey (who, under Keegan, completed a move from centre-forward to centre-back), Pavel Srnicek (who replaced Tommy Wright owing to injury early in the season and kept his place), we added that season Rob Lee, John Beresford, Scott Sellars and Andy Cole.

Keegan's appointment really coincided, fortuitously, with my becoming a cognisant supporter of Newcastle. There are pictures of me at four or five years old happily wearing a Newcastle strip; but it was when I was six that I started actively supporting the club: I recall Ossie Ardiles, or I suppose at this point recall having recalled him, having heard about him, having understood him as the club's manager, but the first match I attended was a friendly, York vs. Newcastle, prior to the 1992/93 season, and it was during that season that I started, more or less regularly, attending games (my father and grandfather had and still have season tickets, and from that point on we have broadly alternated attending the games). I remember petulantly, perhaps already spoilt by Keegan, declaring that I was giving the team up when we drew 3-3, if I remember correctly, with Birmingham City later in the season in a televised home match.

I think if you took the sort of view that we are solely products of our experiences, then there would have to be a case that Keegan's Newcastle were formative in my understanding and appreciation of aesthetics: Keegan's Newcastle established football for me within an aesthetic framework, and demonstrated something of an art-for-art's sake, bold and inspired approach to the game. In our first season in the Premier League we finished third; then sixth the following season, losing momentum after selling Andy Cole; and in 1995/96 we reached our pinnacle, narrowly missing out on the title to Manchester United. Our ground grew from a capacity of 32,000, to a capacity of 36,000, with plans underway during the later period of Keegan's reign for its eventual redevelopment to the 52,000 capacity stadium which exists today. I remember buying merchandise from the club shop when the club shop was a small portacabin in the corner of the stadium's car-park. Keegan, the driving force propelling Hall's idealism and the player's talents, really made the club what it is: we have had twenty excellent years, years, barring one, of top-flight football, in which time we've not infrequently challenged towards the top of the league, competed in Europe, and been host to some tremendously exciting and accomplished players.

And look at the team he built! I think not only the team but the squad we had at our peak, towards the end of the 1995/96 season, bears comparison with the best squads of today:

GK: Pavel Srnicek, Shaka Hislop
DF: Philippe Albert, Steve Howey, Darren Peacock, John Beresford, Warren Barton, Steve Watson, Robbie Elliot, Marc Hottiger
MF: Rob Lee, David Batty, Lee Clark, David Ginola, Keith Gillespie, Ruel Fox, Scott Sellars, Matt Holland
FW: Les Ferdinand, Peter Beardsley, Tino Asprilla, Paul Kitson

And even that squad, to look at, doesn't convey the way we played!

Ruel Fox

Nice memoirs. You almost seem like a real fan, a real human being. Although you are probably just another forum-bot.

Nice post Bash! Was Keegan still in charge when you went to the CL in 1996 or 97 or whatever year it was? Always remember that 3-2 against Barcelona - Asprilla hat trick included! That was when I first took a liking to Newcastle United...

I used to support Newcastle around that time when I was a kid,from about 1996 to 2002 or something like that.

The team in the Early Noughties was a good team as well with Solano,Dyer,Laurent Robert,Shearer etc All exciting players to watch.

Til this day they're the only English club apart from Liverpool that I don't hate.

Remember the 7-1 smackdown we got at St James' in 1996-97.

The defining game was surely the 1st 4-3 loss at Anfield - plus what happened to Ginola in a League cup game at Highbury that year was a disgrace.

Baser is spot on - really intriguing memoir and proof of a love for your club.

Basically, you're the very antithesis of our friend Worms

worms wrote:I used to support Newcastle around that time when I was a kid,from about 1996 to 2002 or something like that.

The team in the Early Noughties was a good team as well with Solano,Dyer,Laurent Robert,Shearer etc All exciting players to watch.

Til this day they're the only English club apart from Liverpool that I don't hate.

No offence intended Mr Worms. I admire your brutal black and white view of the World, you seem like a nice chap. But in terms of exuding an underlying appreciation of aspects in the game that delve a little deeper than whether a team has proven worthy every week in satisfy your TV viewing pleasure, let's just say you're the football supporting equivalent of what Katie Price is to novel writing

By the way, get well David Ginola

And I've said from day 0, despite Kimmy's protestations that we all have it in for Newcastle daaan saaaf, Newcastle are a club steeped with admirable tradition for playing the game as it should be. Even if they haven't won anything for donkey's years and are a poor man's Spurs... :reelinthatfish:

Metta World Peace wrote:Baser is spot on - really intriguing memoir and proof of a love for your club.

Basically, you're the very antithesis of our friend Worms

worms wrote:I used to support Newcastle around that time when I was a kid,from about 1996 to 2002 or something like that.

The team in the Early Noughties was a good team as well with Solano,Dyer,Laurent Robert,Shearer etc All exciting players to watch.

Til this day they're the only English club apart from Liverpool that I don't hate.

No offence intended Mr Worms. I admire your brutal black and white view of the World, you seem like a nice chap. But in terms of exuding an underlying appreciation of aspects in the game that delve a little deeper than whether a team has proven worthy every week in satisfy your TV viewing pleasure, let's just say you're the football supporting equivalent of what Katie Price is to novel writing

By the way, get well David Ginola

And I've said from day 0, despite Kimmy's protestations that we all have it in for Newcastle daaan saaaf, Newcastle are a club steeped with admirable tradition for playing the game as it should be. Even if they haven't won anything for donkey's years and are a poor man's Spurs... :reelinthatfish:

How dare you!!!!

I have had to suffer the hardship of sitting in my armchair for a whole 90 minutes on many occasions over the past few seasons,only to be rewarded by having to watch football which is technically poor, defensive and which main tactic is never ending crosses into the box(Otherwise known as Pussy football)and being fored to watch a human/donkey hybrid fail at trapping a simple ball .But do I stop watching? Nope,I don't....I watch on

If that's not a passionate, honorable and dedicated supporter then I don't know what is.

Come on now it's not like I'm some kind of East Asian Glory hunter.












And yes that last bit was a joke before Pras Tama and 10% get mad.

No, Jaime - unfortunately our third-placed finish in 1993/4 and our second-placed finish in 1995/96 were only enough to lead us into the UEFA Cup. Dalglish was in charge by the time we played Barcelona in the early part of the 1997/98 season - obviously the first season in which a second-placed finish resulted in qualification for the Champions League - though our performance against Barcelona was a sort of remnant of our old way of playing. Incidentally, though he did an awful job for us and made some poor and some condescending transfers, I never particularly fervently disliked Dalglish; but our style of play did significantly alter under him, entwined with his overhaul of the squad. Asprilla and, perhaps even more so, Gillespie had wonderful games for us that night.

Yes, TS - the 7-1 was one of our best games, and one of Keegan's last - I think he left a couple of games later, and actually cited that result when suggesting his reasons for leaving. The impetus behind his decision to leave has always seemed the fact that the board were about to float the club on the stock exchange, and Keegan felt that the focus was moving away from the football, and became disenchanted and wasn't happy committing himself to a long term contract given what was going on behind the scenes; and in the context of this disenchantment, he suggested that a sort of moment of understanding had occurred when, after the 7-1, he looked at Gerry Francis and felt more sorry for him than he felt glad over the victory.

I think the 4-3 was a significant game for us and for the Premier League, but I think it tends to be used to draw the wrong, and perhaps hurtful, conclusions regarding our team at that time and Keegan's nature as a football manager. I read Darren Peacock recently stating that, in fact, in 1995/96, we only conceded two more goals than Manchester United. The notion that we were defensively fragile and therefore, the presumption usually seems to be, tactically naive is I think flawed and unfair: Keegan created a tactically cohesive team, and our defenders were a vital part of that, only they all, barring perhaps Darren Peacock, had attacking roles to play, roles in our passing and in our build-up. Personally, I think it is harder and also more valuable to create a team that works playing positive, pro-active, attacking, exciting football than it is to create a team that is primarily defensively sound; yet it is the latter sort of team that wins plaudits for tactical sense. We lost the title in 1995/96 very marginally, with Schmeichel and Cantona having their best seasons for Manchester United; whilst we suffered a run of unfortunate defeats where players like Ian Woan and Graham Fenton scored wonder goals against us; we had a squad that had never competed in a title race before and lacked that crucial experience; and as you point out, TS, what happened with Ginola at Highbury in the League Cup really hampered his season, where before that he had been our and the league's best player.