Will Keegan Start and End Newcastle’s Stay in the Premier League?

Kevin Keegan took Newcastle into the Premier League after securing promotion in his first full season in charge at St James’ but after a 15-year stay in the top division is King Kev about to take the Toon back down to where he found them?

The fervour created by Special K’s reappointment on Tyneside has certainly begun to die down after 7 matches without a win under his tutelage. Romanticism has been replaced by fear as Newcastle slip closer to the relegation trapdoor. The gap between the club and the drop-zone is a mere 3 points and after failing to win a League match in 2008 the Toon Army must surely be looking frantically over their shoulders at the chasing pack.

It’s fair to say that of those 7 matches under Keegan, they’ve faced some tough fixtures such as Arsenal away (twice) and Manchester United at home but they’ve also faced teams such as Bolton, Boro and Blackburn all at St James’ and still failed to win. The Magpies last League win came back in mid-December under Sam Allardyce and with fixtures including Liverpool, Birmingham and Tottenham all away in the next few weeks, things could get worse before they get any better.

Keegan didn’t manage to bring in any players of note in the transfer window but has an almost fully fit squad at his disposal. However, the return of players such as Damien Duff, Michael Owen, Joey Barton, Abdoulaye Faye and now Obafemi Martins to the squad has done nothing to boost results.

The club surprisingly appointed Dennis Wise to oversee the recruitment of players but his persuasiveness may be tainted by the clubs current predicament. Keegan also brought in former Tottenham assistant Chris Hughton to the club last week to work on his leaky defence but that’s like asking Ashley Cole to work as a marriage counsellor. After all, Hughton’s work with Spurs defence was hardly impressive to say the least.

The club have picked up 2 League points from a possible 18 under King Kev, they’ve scored just 3 League goals (all in individual games) and conceded a total of 14 goals. Apart from bottom side Derby, they remain the only other Premier League side without a win in 2008 and this damning statistic could spell doom for Newcastle’s chances of survival this season.

Keegan has never been renowned as a master tactician but with the side he has inherited is there any hope his enthusiastic attack-fuelled approach will prevail. At this moment in time the answer would be no. However, King Kev’s hopes of staying in the Premier League may depend on the lack of quality of the teams also struggling in the bottom half of the table. After all, Derby and Fulham look more and more doomed with each passing match, so the last relegation place should be taken by 1 of 7 sides. A win could be the catalyst Keegan needs to lead a Tyneside revival but the longer that wait goes on the further the club slips into trouble.

Can Special K keep the Toon in the Premier League or will his second reign end in disastrous relegation after a 15-year stay in the top division? Until he picks up a much-needed win, the latter looks more and more a possibility as the turmoil on Tyneside deepens for King Kev!

Written by Christian Goodbrand

Tags: Kevin Keegan, Newcastle, Premier League, relegation

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 17:28 and is filed under Features, Home Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.