King Kev to the rescue

KING Kev is back at St Jame's Park and the Toon Army is ecstatic. The massed ranks of Fleet Street's sports hacks, a cynical bunch if there ever was one, are not quite so sure, however.
The coming of the Tyneside Messiah was one one of those occasions when, in future years, you will recall exactly where you were when the news broke. A bit like John Kennedy's death and Margaret Thatcher's downfall, although not quite with the same consequences, unless of course you are one of the Geordie faithful, so precisely described by Hugh McIlvenney in the Sunday Times as the "lost tribe of English football".
I was in a traffic jam on Lower Thames Street, on the way to my flat in London Docklands, when I heard the news on Radio Five. I immediately telephoned James Coles, sports editor at View from, who sits next to me in our football-mad office. Neither one of us is a Newcastle supporter, but we had been speculating for days about who would succeed Big Sam.
After watching the circus surrounding Kevin Keegan's return, and listening to his press conference, I share the cynicism shared by almost every chief football writer on the nationals.
There can be no doubt that from a fans point of view, the appointment of Kevin, so worshipped on Tyneside as a player and manager during his first stint in charge of then great underachievers, has galvanised the great Newcastle football public. All they need to do now is bring in Alan Shearer as his No 2 and they will be in a constant state to arousement.
On this last scenario, I'm not quite sure what to think. None of the journos think there's any chance that Shearer will consider a No 2 position, but it seemed to me that he was virtually on his way "oop North" when he spoke about his future on Match of The Day on Saturday night. Once the best of buddies, it seems that the friendship cooled quite considerably when Keegan failed to turn up to Shearer's testimonial because he was on a a family holiday in America.
There can be no denying Keegan's honesty and enthusiasm, which he demonstrated in bucketfuls at the press conference, but there was an intensity about his answers and his demeanour which was slightly disturbing. Flashes of that wonderful Sky interview when Keegan lost the plot flashed across my mind. "Does he have the bottle to do this job," was the question I kept asking myself.
There would also seem to be a little local difficulty with Michael Owen as well over his views on Keegan in his book and the form of Newcastle in their dour 0-0 draw with Derby on Saturday wasn't quite what the script expected and will have proved to Keegan that he has much work to do and a great deal more money to spend. Fortunately, owner Mike Ashley's bottomless pit will provide that.
Keegan will inject some excitement into the otherwise unfulfilled lives of football's most loyal fans. I can't see him sitting in the stand barking orders into a mobile phone in Sam Allardyce fashion. That's not his style. He will be in the dug-out and on the touchline kicking every ball , urging his players forward, hugging them at the end of every game and then pouring out his heart to any microphone shoved in front of his face. He will "really, really love that".
He's already warned Sir Alex Ferguson that he's after his title. I doubt whether Fergie is quaking in his boots.
Of course, the loyal Geordie fans deserve success and I have no doubt Keegan will deliver eventually in some form or other. It could be a long haul, however.

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WELL, I've managed to get through nearly half the season in my first year out of local football without taking up train spotting on a Saturday afternoon.
I've written in this blog before about the big change of my Saturday itinerary after ten years as chairman at Lyme Regis FC. I still miss the buzz of match day greatly and a recent visit to the Davey Fort proved to me that just being a supporter will never be a substitute for the total involvement I enjoyed for all those years.
Every so often I get a flashback of some of the more memorable events and experiences during my years as chairman of the club I've been connected with for 50 years.
Here's one of them: in my early days as chairman I loved being involved with the team on matchdays and became the bag man for a few seasons. I even got an FA first aid qualification.
There was one occasion when a player went down with what looked to be a serious injury. I picked up the medical bag and gashed my forehead on the side of the Davey Fort dug-out. I didn't really how serious it was until I was attending the injured player and blood from the gash was spurting out all over him. The ref sent me back to the dug-out to get attention whilst the visiting bagman took over looking after our player.
You can't beat enthusiasm.

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BEING interviewed before the Manchester City-West Ham fixture on Sky Sports on Sunday afternoon, manager Sven Gorin Eriksson was asked if he was worried about City's poor scoring rate. He said he wasn't and that he was still sleeping at night. Which prompts the question: "Who with?"