God on the Tyne

It’s all fine, all fine. So in the roller-coaster world that comes with being a Newcastle United fan, there are some things you think will never happen, but secretly hope that they do. The return of Keegan was one such (incredibly far-fetched) dream. Yet, in a move that has already drawn questions from anyone who is a fan of any other team in the world, Keegan has, in his words “come home”.

Keegan originally left the club 11 years ago after taking Newcastle United from the 2nd division, to the brink of winning the premiership in just 5 short years. Since then, everyone who has tried to manage the club (even the great Robson) have lived in Keegan’s shadow. The majority of the photographs on the wall in the more private areas of the ground are from the Keegan era (the likes of Tino Asprilla scoring his amazing hat-trick against Barcelona, the signing of Shearer, Albert lobbing Schmeichel in the infamous “Howay 5-0″ match to name a few), and this shows when the halcyon days of the club were.

But now the “Geordie Messiah” has returned, and what a difference he has already made. His first game in charge is on Saturday against Bolton, but the Keegan effect was already in full show last night. For a team that lost 6-0 last weekend, and who had been playing some absolutely dire football over recent weeks, the change was incredible. As was the attitude of the fans. People who had been previously decrying the style of football that they were paying to see, and who weren’t happy with the management team, have now been dancing in the streets. If the BBC are to be believed, 20,000 tickets were sold in the 3 hours before the game last night after the announcement that Keegan had returned. Take this with a pinch of salt however as the crowd was just over 34,000 and not the 53,000 that the BBC claim. Also, we can score. Now fair enough we were playing Stoke, but look at the way we struggled to get a draw at the Britannia stadium 10 days before and compare that with the performance last night. Stunning.

So where does this leave us? Well with a feeling of warmth at the moment. For days I’ve been saying (to anyone who will listen in the banana patch in which I work), that there were only 2 men who could pull off the job. One was Shearer, the other Keegan. Most of the time this was met with chuckles and responses of “yeah, right”. But laugh no more (especially those of you rounf the banana patch who are Stoke fans!) as Keegan knows what the fans want. Now, it’s time to deliver…