I feel utterly devastated writing this. I’m not even sure what I’m going to put, but it needs to be something, Kevin Keegan deserves something.
It’s not an understatement to say that on Monday we had the awful news of the loss of the most important person in Newcastle United’s recent history.
I realise there will be a lot said and written over the coming days so suffice to say that Kevin Keegan’s arrival at Newcastle United as a player dragged the club out of a lull. I was too young to remember that, but I was fully on board for his arrival as a manager where he dragged the club from the brink of oblivion.
Maybe United would have survived relegation to the third tier and ultimately found their way to the Premier League, even getting as far as title challenges and European campaigns. It’s more likely they’d have been swallowed up in a pit of debt and underachievement without the direction of KK.
It’s an absolute certainty that they wouldn’t have become the stylish, much admired exponents of pure attacking football that transcended sport and were a part of 90s pop culture. Ginola, Asprilla, Philippe Albert, Adidas shirts with grandad collars and brown ale logos. All to a backdrop of a shiny new St James’ Park springing up from the wreckage of the crumbling stands that preceded it.
I see Newcastle United as an inclusive club and a place where people are always welcome, but it is intrinsically linked to the city and the Geordies. It is the number one topic of conversation when people find out you are from the area and the most likely source of recognition on an international scale. Keegan’s rapid regeneration of the club helped the city grow with it, to the extent that quality of life in the city my kids will grow up in even owes a bit to Kevin. That’s maybe what I’d remember about him, quality of life.
I was lucky enough to meet King Kev on a few occasions, the last of which was a talk-in I covered for The Mag in 2021, just days after the takeover.
Photo by Jamie Smith via The Mag
The theme with every one of those meetings, whether in a professional capacity of as a spotty youth getting his signature on my Asics shirt, was the energy he brought to the room. Kevin Keegan saw every person who wanted to meet him and made them feel ten feet tall. He chatted amiably and indulged every request for photos and signatures. I can still remember him leaving that night in the early hours joking “Haven’t you lot got homes to go to?” to the still gathered throng who had all had their time with the great man.
When he wasn’t doing the rounds, he could hold a room in the palm of his hand. I was also present that night at the Glasshouse in the pits of the Mike Ashley era when he said the famous words that would later form a banner in the Gallowgate:
“Don’t ever give up on your club, keep supporting it. It’s your club and trust me one day you will get your club back and it will be everything you wanted it to be. Newcastle United is bigger than anyone. It hurts I know, but just keep going. He is only one man, we are a city, a whole population. Trust me.”
I can confirm that I saw this with my own eyes, Kevin just coming out with this on the spot in response to a question. Words that were enough to inspire everyone in that venue to charge up the hill and start tearing doors off the place. That is who Kevin Keegan was.
Going back to that last time I saw him, I asked Kevin if the new owners had been in touch with him for a role at the club. He said that they needed to tell him what he could offer, as his coaching days were gone and it wasn’t his style to just hang around the place in a nondescript capacity. The answer came to me too late, but the job for KK could have been as a closer, bringing that infectious enthusiasm to the table. I severely doubt that some of the characters who’ve turned us down in recent years would have been as dismissive after five minutes with Kevin.
This enthusiasm and positivity is what has stuck with me. When Newcastle United won the first division in 93, he said we were coming for Man Utd and their title. Within three years he’d come within a whisker of doing it. He took a club that had been in the doldrums for decades and refused to accept the notion of any limitations. I’m going to quote him again:
“I want people to dream about their football club, we should all be dreamers at heart. Some people are the opposite and say ‘we can’t do that’ but when you ask them why, they can’t give a reason. Well I say Why Not?”
This is so pertinent to the current backdrop. So much negativity around the club as it struggles to reboot itself after a challenging year. Maybe if we adopt this mantra in the times ahead something brilliant can be achieved once again. Yes Keegan didn’t have the restrictions of the current era, but he also didn’t have to tolerate the negativity of social media, of constant windbags on various streaming services pulling apart every perceived flaw. I’m sure he’d have dismissed it as nonsense that just didn’t align with his values.
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I bet everyone has a story about times they’ve met Kevin Keegan and they’ll all talk about this incredible presence, of feeling star struck and completely at ease all at once. Everyone will identify with the enthusiasm, the positivity and the aura that surrounded the great man wherever he went.
This is how to honour him. There will surely be a statue. A stand in the ground that wouldn’t look like it does now without him should soon bear his name. The club know this and they will respond accordingly in time, as we build up to the opening day of the season against extremely fitting opposition. The approach can’t be to demand things, begin recriminations and turn the concept of what should be done into another squabble, another negative. Instead this is an opportunity to harness Keegan’s legacy in a way fitting for the man; to drive forward in a United way and strive to fulfil those dreams.
As The Mag reported on breaking the news, everything else pales into insignificance.
Celebrity deaths can be strange in the way they hit you, with sadness coming unexpectedly. I am always conscious that the true grief belongs to the family and close friends, but in this case I would be certain that the Keegan family know what a huge role Kevin held in the affections of Newcastle United, the city and it’s people. He was their husband, father, grandfather, but he was our King. His loss is crushing and he’ll be as missed as he was adored.
Now let’s please honour the man by following his example. There’s only one Kevin Keegan.
You can follow the author on BlueSky @bigjimwinsalot.bsky.social