Kevin Keegan's second reign in charge of Newcastle United has come to an end after he resigned as manager. The news brings to an end huge confusion surrounding Keegan's future at the club, after talk of his departure first emerged on Monday evening. Keegan held discussions with Newcastle's hierarchy on Monday and Tuesday, and reports of him being sacked began to leak out of St James' Park.
However, Newcastle denied he had been sacked and then Keegan insisted through the League Managers Association that he had not resigned. Now, following further talks, Keegan has quit his role - bringing to an end his second spell in charge, which lasted eight months, after he took charge following Sam Allardyce's departure. In a statement released through the LMA, Keegan confirmed he had quit - citing the fact he did not have the control he wanted over club affairs.
"I've been working desperately hard to find a way forward with the directors, but sadly that has not proved possible," he said.
"It's my opinion that a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want.
"It remains my fervent wish to see Newcastle United do well in the future and I feel incredibly sorry for the players, staff and most importantly the supporters.
"I have been left with no choice other than to leave."
The LMA confirmed that Keegan failed to resolve his issues after talks over the past few days. [End of report]
When I first heard this news on Monday, I was completely shocked, but having said that, I think I should saw it coming. The question now is who to blame for the current situation. The first person that should be blame is probably the owner of the club, Mike Ashley. When he took over the club from Freddy Shepherd, everyone thought we were going to achieve great things. Afterall, Ashley is one of the richest person in the country and logically speaking, he should invest a lot of cash in bringing new players into the club. He even promised that there would be cash to spend. His first major decision at the club was probably to sack Sam Allardyce, our manager then, who was not his choice of manager, but Freddy Shepherd's. The club wasn't doing too well then and it was probably a right thing to sack him. So the search for a new manager was on and most supporter was asking for the appointment of Kevin Keegan. I dont need to tell you what he means to the club. Mike Ashley listened to the fans and he got Keegan to be the new manager. Everyone was happy, or so it seems.
The first sign that things wasnt going well between Keegan and Ashley in particular was the recruitment of Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez as the Director of Football and the club Vice-President for player recruitment respectively. I dont really know what their job really is but whatever it is, Keegan was unhappy. According to him, they were trying to buy players that he was not interested in and they were trying to sell players behind Keegan's back, which was ultimately the main reason for him to resign. He wanted to have more control on how the club is run and he didnt got it. I dont know whether that is true or not but I have to agree with Keegan when he says that he should have the control on which player to buy and sell, I think any manager needs to have that power. I disagree with Keegan though on his decision to quit the club once again. He should just stick with the current squad and leave at the end of the season. I have to admit, I wasnt that pleased when Keegan became the manager because there were many other top managers who are unemployed.
Keegan might have came close to winning the Premiership in his first reign at the club, but I highly doubt it would happen again. It is difficult to say if his time with the club now is a success or not because he has only been here for eight months. I believe Mike Ashley is also responsible for the current situation we are in. He has not delivered what he has promised which is to invest huge sum of money in buying new players, but to be fair with him, he had to pay off a lot of debts left by Freddy Shepherd when he took over. He may say that he is short in cash right now, if that is the case, he should sell the club already. I heard that the Arab company that bought Manchester City recently were also considering to buy Newcastle, but Mike Ashley wasnt interested at all, I dont know why. If he doesnt have the cash to invest in the team anymore, he should just sell the club to someone who has the money to bring the club forward. It is a shame that he had miss out on the great opportunity.
Well, everything has happened now there is no turning back. As much as I wanted to see Keegan staying, it just wasnt meant to be. I dont know what will happen to the club now, it is in utter disarray. Im just hoping that some big company are interested to buy the club and get rid of Ashley because I dont think we are going anywhere with him still in charge. The search for a new manager starts again, but whether things are going to change for the better, I guess we will all just have to wait.
*The report was taken from SkySports.
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