His hair is grey, his face is wrinkled and worn, but his eyes sparkled and that was good enough for me. I’ve never been in a room with Kevin Keegan before, but when people talk about auras, when they talk about presence and when Simon Cowell talks about the X-Factor, I know exactly what they all mean.
Keegan oozed charisma, he oozed charm, he oozed determination and he oozed purpose. But what really oozed (I’ve used that word a little too much haven’t I?) from Keegan as he greeted the media for the first time since his return was his love for Newcastle, not just the club, but the city and its people.
I believe, a few entries ago, that I insisted I was not a romantic, but a pragmatist to argue why Jose Mourinho was the only, truly outstanding candidate to replace Sam Allardyce as Newcastle manager. Now I’m not so sure. I’m not quite walking in a Keegan wonderland, but I’ve definitely leapt aboard the bandwagon that’s on its way there.
As it happens, I was asked yesterday morning by a friend on that time consuming social network /voyeurs paradise Facebook, who was the most famous person I’d ever met? I was tempted to say Billie Piper, but that was more lust than fame.
After a few seconds careful contemplation I decided on Pele. A Brazilian football legend, arguably the greatest player the world has ever seen and one of the most recognisable faces on the planet.
Well, when Keegan walked into a packed media suite at St James’s Park on Friday afternoon, the mood in the room was just as it had been when Pele stepped on to the stage to share a few words of wisdom. I believe, that is what they call greatness!
Keegan was inevitably on good form. He cracked a few jokes, he said hello to a few familiar faces in the crowd and then he delivered his address. It was carefully worded at times, but as is the norm of Keegan, the passion often got the best of him.
He not only said he was the right man for the job, he said he was the only man for the job at this moment in time. He talked excitedly about why Newcastle was the only club he would return to football for and he admitted he had spent the last 11 years being jealous of every manager who had taken on the challenge of trying to replicate what he had achieved.
He also insisted, while some in other parts of the country may snigger and laugh at the notion, that Newcastle was the club best equipped to break the Big Four’s monopoly of English football. He said let others poke fun at the club, just let him get on with trying to have the last laugh.
He already had the audience in the palm of his hand, but what harm could a little sprinkling of fairy dust do? Keegan is back and he is already thinking big. Newcastle supporters would not want it any other way.
All that’s left is for Bolton to come to St James’s Park on Saturday evening and grind out a 1-0 win in the style of a certain Big Sam someone or other!
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