Words alone can’t do justice to the depth of sadness felt on Tyneside at the devastating passing of Kevin Keegan.
By early evening at a sun-kissed St James’ Park, supporters young and old were beginning to arrive, bearing flowers, scarves and shirts to be laid at the stadium’s South West Corner. One had left a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale, a touching tribute to a man who understood how intoxicating a successful Newcastle United was for a city whose heart beats for football.
Keegan earned his stripes at Scunthorpe United and graduated into greatness with Liverpool and England. But it was Newcastle where the supporters fell maddeningly in love with a man who just seemed to get it, changing the profile of the club and city forever in a spell where – Keegan would often remind them – anything felt possible.
I was only around for his second, fractious spell as manager at St James’ Park when it often felt like Keegan’s heart was breaking week by week. This was no longer the club he recognised, nor even a sport that he seemed to understood.
His eventual divorce from the Mike Ashley institution had been coming for weeks and Newcastle never forgave for the owner for the way he treated Keegan. But even in that messy, moribund time I can recall one Friday press conference – after the great man had met his new signing Fabricio Coloccini and looked genuinely enraptured by the prospect of him and compatriot Jonas Gutierrez playing in black and white – when the spark returned.
Alan Shearer paid tribute to his former coach calling him ‘my hero’ (Photo: Getty)Keegan delivered a passionate speech about hope and what Newcastle might yet achieve, blowing away the grey clouds that hung over the stadium. As a young reporter for local newspaper The Journal I walked away feeling 10ft tall at having experienced just a hint of the Keegan stardust. It had been a privilege to be in that room.
And that is how Newcastle fans view that halcyon period in the mid-nineties when Keegan was able to deliver the most brilliant attacking team but not the title they craved. Does that matter? The pain of that near miss has subsided but the affection they are held in endures. There is your answer.
It’s hard to think of many figures in the English game who achieved as much as Keegan and there are even fewer who influenced it in the way he did. But what Newcastle loved him for was that he remained a man of the people, with no hint of arrogance or airs and graces.
When he left Newcastle for a second time there was a sadness in the way he spoke of the club. He believed he was unofficially banned – famously sneaking back in disguise once for a leaving do, only to be recognised in minutes – but continued to do talk-ins.
I went to one and it was a joyous occasion. His anecdotes were razor sharp, the crowd rapt by the great man. But it was afterwards, when people lined up to have shirts, books or photographs signed, that Keegan really came into his own.
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News: Tributes pour in as Kevin Keegan dies aged 75 Exclusive: Inside Newcastle’s four-transfer battleplan after Johan Manzambi snubWhat had been billed as a half-hour signing session snaked into two hours as fans shared their memories of what his team meant to them and Keegan had time for everyone. He was genuinely touched at points as fans produced their photos with pictures of them meeting him for the first time. He walked away in no doubt about what he meant to the place.
Keegan had not wanted to milk it, turning down offers from the current ownership to visit or take on a ceremonial role. He once said that statues “are for dead people”.
The club are ready to name a stand at St James’ Park after him, such is his impact on and that feels appropriate. No one has had a greater impact on the modern-day Newcastle United than Keegan.
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