[size=14pt]Liverpool will not win the Premier League for at least five years says former Anfield great Kevin Keegan
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Kevin Keegan is in no mood for the bland clichés and banal evasions of footballspeak.
Man of opinions: Kevin Keegan does not shy away from saying what he thinks
By Duncan White 10:30PM BST 30 Apr 2011
The opinions come thick and fast: the Liverpool squad is the weakest in five years; they won’t win the title for another five seasons at least; they have to leave Anfield; Andy Carroll was hugely overpriced; Newcastle will sell more stars in the summer; the best day on Tyneside will be the day Mike Ashley leaves.
“If something has got to be said I’ll say it,†Keegan said. “Sometimes you’ll say something which you know will cause a problem somewhere. You have to tell it as you see it. You can’t be biased.
"Take Liverpool. You have to say the squad they have now is the poorest they have had in at least five years. It is not a problem for me.
Take Newcastle. You know I don’t like the owner there — I took him to court — but if they’ve played well of course I’ll give them the credit. But I’m not scared to say the best day they’ll have is when he goes because I know that’s true.â€
Newcastle travel to Liverpool on Sunday and Keegan will be there in his role as a pundit for ESPN.
It is a fixture that resonates back to his first time in charge at Newcastle and the 4-3 loss at Anfield which has become a foundational game in the Premier League's reputation for thrilling football.
His second spell in charge at Newcastle ended so bitterly in September 2008 that many feared Keegan would leave the game for good.
He resigned after he felt Ashley and his executive team had made his job untenable. This was a position borne out by an arbitration tribunal which awarded Keegan £2 million in compensation for constructive dismissal and revealed that players had been foisted on to him with little more than a grainy YouTube clip to go on.
Two and a half years later Keegan is immersed in football again, and has just signed up for two more years with the ambitious American broadcaster.
We meet at a hotel near his Hale home and he is fizzing with enthusiasm and strong opinion.
Understandably, Newcastle’s owner is treated with scepticism. Many fans on Tyneside are hoping that this summer the £35 million they received for Andy Carroll in January will be spent on new players. No chance, says Keegan.
“It is not going to be reinvested is it, I think that’s obvious,†he said. “As a Newcastle fan, if Carroll is the only one you are going to lose you have to be pretty thankful.
"There may well be other players going as we speak. I think they’ll sell two more players and then he’ll sell the club. And that’ll be the best day Newcastle fans have, when he sells the club.
“I’d love to be able to give Newcastle fans some encouragement but I can’t see it getting any better in the short term.â€
Keegan is especially frustrated by the situation because he feels Newcastle did extremely well financially out of the deal to sell Carroll.
“No one in their right mind who had worked with him or seen him — not even Andy Carroll himself — would say he was worth £35 million. But if you’ve just got £50 million and you are desperately, desperately looking to appease your fans having sold Fernando Torres, it can happen.
"You get more than you thought for Torres so maybe you pay more for Carroll. Would I have paid that for him? 100 per cent no.
“People talk about Carroll and Luis Suárez being like John Toshack and myself. Really? Liverpool paid £100,000 for Toshie and £33,000 for me. I came from Scunthorpe United and no one has heard of me. So it was slightly different. â€
Not that Keegan thinks Carroll is lacking in talent.
“He was on the fringe when I was there. He was raw. This kid is the best header of the ball I’ve ever seen. That’s his biggest plus point for me.
"His minus points have always been there. Can he get his head down? Can someone make him realise that all he has to do is train hard, work hard and be a good pro for 10 years and he’ll be a very rich boy? He needs to get rid of the other stuff.â€
Keeping Carroll disciplined is only one facet of what Keegan sees as a huge rebuilding job at Liverpool if they to become competitive with Manchester United and Arsenal again. Confirming Kenny Dalglish as manager would be a good start.
“I can’t understand why he hasn’t been given the job yet,†Keegan said. “There is no way they can’t do it.
"I don’t know whether they are waiting for a right time or something but it is impossible not to give him the job. It’s just a case of announcing it. It’s obvious the players enjoy playing for him.
"If you look at the points they have taken since Kenny has come in and applied them to the first half of the season they’d be champions. The test will be doing that next season.
“Personally, and I’m sure Kenny knows, I think the Liverpool squad is still way, way short. Unless huge investment comes in, I’d be amazed if Liverpool were to win the league championship in the next five years.
"They are losing ground on their rivals by the minute, with only 40,000 coming into Anfield and not being in the Champions League.
“They need to find £300 million for a new stadium on top of all the rebuilding of the squad. They really have to seriously think of this new stadium and how they finance it.
"They need to get another 15,000 to 20,000 people in there so they can at least begin to compete with Manchester United on a commercial level. It saddens me to say it but they have to move from Anfield.â€
On Sunday afternoon, though, Keegan will be back at the stadium that he graced at his peak, watching two of his old teams scrap it out.
Does it not tempt him back to the touchline? “I haven’t ruled it out,†he said. “I don’t think anyone who has been in football should. You never know.â€
more...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8485428/Liverpool-will-not-win-the-Premier-League-for-at-least-five-years-says-former-Anfield-great-Kevin-Keegan.html
[/size]
Kevin Keegan is in no mood for the bland clichés and banal evasions of footballspeak.
Man of opinions: Kevin Keegan does not shy away from saying what he thinks
By Duncan White 10:30PM BST 30 Apr 2011
The opinions come thick and fast: the Liverpool squad is the weakest in five years; they won’t win the title for another five seasons at least; they have to leave Anfield; Andy Carroll was hugely overpriced; Newcastle will sell more stars in the summer; the best day on Tyneside will be the day Mike Ashley leaves.
“If something has got to be said I’ll say it,†Keegan said. “Sometimes you’ll say something which you know will cause a problem somewhere. You have to tell it as you see it. You can’t be biased.
"Take Liverpool. You have to say the squad they have now is the poorest they have had in at least five years. It is not a problem for me.
Take Newcastle. You know I don’t like the owner there — I took him to court — but if they’ve played well of course I’ll give them the credit. But I’m not scared to say the best day they’ll have is when he goes because I know that’s true.â€
Newcastle travel to Liverpool on Sunday and Keegan will be there in his role as a pundit for ESPN.
It is a fixture that resonates back to his first time in charge at Newcastle and the 4-3 loss at Anfield which has become a foundational game in the Premier League's reputation for thrilling football.
His second spell in charge at Newcastle ended so bitterly in September 2008 that many feared Keegan would leave the game for good.
He resigned after he felt Ashley and his executive team had made his job untenable. This was a position borne out by an arbitration tribunal which awarded Keegan £2 million in compensation for constructive dismissal and revealed that players had been foisted on to him with little more than a grainy YouTube clip to go on.
Two and a half years later Keegan is immersed in football again, and has just signed up for two more years with the ambitious American broadcaster.
We meet at a hotel near his Hale home and he is fizzing with enthusiasm and strong opinion.
Understandably, Newcastle’s owner is treated with scepticism. Many fans on Tyneside are hoping that this summer the £35 million they received for Andy Carroll in January will be spent on new players. No chance, says Keegan.
“It is not going to be reinvested is it, I think that’s obvious,†he said. “As a Newcastle fan, if Carroll is the only one you are going to lose you have to be pretty thankful.
"There may well be other players going as we speak. I think they’ll sell two more players and then he’ll sell the club. And that’ll be the best day Newcastle fans have, when he sells the club.
“I’d love to be able to give Newcastle fans some encouragement but I can’t see it getting any better in the short term.â€
Keegan is especially frustrated by the situation because he feels Newcastle did extremely well financially out of the deal to sell Carroll.
“No one in their right mind who had worked with him or seen him — not even Andy Carroll himself — would say he was worth £35 million. But if you’ve just got £50 million and you are desperately, desperately looking to appease your fans having sold Fernando Torres, it can happen.
"You get more than you thought for Torres so maybe you pay more for Carroll. Would I have paid that for him? 100 per cent no.
“People talk about Carroll and Luis Suárez being like John Toshack and myself. Really? Liverpool paid £100,000 for Toshie and £33,000 for me. I came from Scunthorpe United and no one has heard of me. So it was slightly different. â€
Not that Keegan thinks Carroll is lacking in talent.
“He was on the fringe when I was there. He was raw. This kid is the best header of the ball I’ve ever seen. That’s his biggest plus point for me.
"His minus points have always been there. Can he get his head down? Can someone make him realise that all he has to do is train hard, work hard and be a good pro for 10 years and he’ll be a very rich boy? He needs to get rid of the other stuff.â€
Keeping Carroll disciplined is only one facet of what Keegan sees as a huge rebuilding job at Liverpool if they to become competitive with Manchester United and Arsenal again. Confirming Kenny Dalglish as manager would be a good start.
“I can’t understand why he hasn’t been given the job yet,†Keegan said. “There is no way they can’t do it.
"I don’t know whether they are waiting for a right time or something but it is impossible not to give him the job. It’s just a case of announcing it. It’s obvious the players enjoy playing for him.
"If you look at the points they have taken since Kenny has come in and applied them to the first half of the season they’d be champions. The test will be doing that next season.
“Personally, and I’m sure Kenny knows, I think the Liverpool squad is still way, way short. Unless huge investment comes in, I’d be amazed if Liverpool were to win the league championship in the next five years.
"They are losing ground on their rivals by the minute, with only 40,000 coming into Anfield and not being in the Champions League.
“They need to find £300 million for a new stadium on top of all the rebuilding of the squad. They really have to seriously think of this new stadium and how they finance it.
"They need to get another 15,000 to 20,000 people in there so they can at least begin to compete with Manchester United on a commercial level. It saddens me to say it but they have to move from Anfield.â€
On Sunday afternoon, though, Keegan will be back at the stadium that he graced at his peak, watching two of his old teams scrap it out.
Does it not tempt him back to the touchline? “I haven’t ruled it out,†he said. “I don’t think anyone who has been in football should. You never know.â€
more...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8485428/Liverpool-will-not-win-the-Premier-League-for-at-least-five-years-says-former-Anfield-great-Kevin-Keegan.html
