Keegan – “The King is Dead”.
Posted on October 3rd, 2009 | 75 Comments |
I awoke needing to write, to quantify why I sit here uncomfortable with the views of the majority – well the majority of the most vociferous anyway.
I always awaited this verdict to finalise my views – I had advocated he shouldn’t have walked – so I expected big things to break, big shocks, serious undermining if he won……… I never expected a technical K.O.
As we all know in September last year – Kevin Keegan walked out of Newcastle. As the tribunal stated he was constructively dismissed. Keegan was victorious and released his statement about the club he loves.
Again I squirm and sit uncomfortably. “A club he loves?”.
Newcastle United is more than a business, more than a company – its a living breathing collective of individuals and energy all who come together to play their part in helping each other succeed in the game we all love – surely that’s what we all want? Personalities come and go, just as players, the seasons, games, referee decisions and results come and go – but the club and the love for the club remains.
A parent can claim similar virtues as a football fan, they love their families with equal passion, put others within their families first, the family is a collective and there for each other through thick and thin – Newcastle United is a family – a one to which we all voluntarily subscribe.
I ask – would a parent voluntarily abandon a child whilst of sane mind and then claim the right to say they “love it” – whilst at the time they abandoned it they knew the damage their abandoning would cause?
Even now in these difficult times – we – the fans – whilst opposed to each others views – we remain firm to the cause – we do not cut and run – yet we are not bound by money – or contracts – we give that love – that passion – unconditionally.
To support our families each of us will work to a degree – fortunately the law provides us protection as in Keegan’s case – I ask a simple question – is his verdict just? Before I am slated I need to explain.
A man working in a coal mine, a hard task, a dangerous job an honest one at that, is paid a wage. In any given year he is paid a modest 25,000, he works, he toils and asks little more than the protection of the law if he is forced out – his position untenable. The law is there to provide that protection – the fundamentals are fantastic – but when society misplaces the logic behind them, the well meaning thoughts behind those laws means their effect is skewed and warped.
To put this into context – Kevin Keegan claimed from this affair the years salary of 1000 men from our club. Or to individualise it – it would take a family of four – your family – if you didn’t spend a penny – 250 years for you all collectively to earn that money – with not a penny going to yourself.
I believe in this whole affair people have forgot about the lifeblood of the club, which comes not only from its fans but also the money (akin to blood) the club needs to operate. Talk is cheap, million of pounds float off the tongue without one thought of how much it is, how long it takes to earn – where it “appears from”.
Kevin Keegan was paid 3.0million a year and rising, an astonishing amount of money – Kevin Keegan relies on the same law that protects the miner. But surely when one is paid that amount of money you expect greater pressure, greater problems, greater difficulty and compromise? Surely that’s why you are being rewarded so generously? Again I ask you – what compromises would you make for that level of reward – it is expected – and has a right to be expected that your shoulders are broad – that you are not a mere mortal – you have strength of character and genius.
You see Kevin Keegan wasn’t being asked to work through these difficulties for himself – he was there to represent the fans – the players – the hopes of us all – so his payment – albeit from the club – was also from us all – when he walked – he walked out on us all too.
It is only when the individual forgets where they are, why they are there, what they are being paid for, only when they become self consumed – abandon their family and the collective cause – can they take legal action like Kevin Keegan took.
Many will immediately counter that he would have been liable for the 2.0m to the club if he had simply walked and not took action – I agree – and if compromise couldn’t be reached then Keegan would have had to – for self preservation – have took the club to arbitration. BUT there is a caveat – it would have been for 2.0m only. To try to take the lifeblood of the club, turn it into a black pudding to suckle himself fat at the expense of everything and everyone else is unforgivable.
Many again will say he has a right to fight for all he can get – I simply say these laws – the laws of employment – are there for the miner and common man – they should not be applied to men at this level of payment or salary – they are being paid to shoulder bigger weights – and should stand and act accordingly.
So on to the case – what little there is of it.
The pivotal point of this case is in relation to the mayhem, frustration and anger in our lives, is trivial. The long term problems of those fundamentals though – I accept – if not worked through are significant – but men who stay and talk work around problems – men who run achieve nothing.
The signing of Nacho Gonzalez for commercial reason or otherwise is an interesting debate in itself, I truly believe that a club has the right to spend its own money – and Mike Ashley owns this club – if he wants to spend one penny or one million – the decision is for him to take. I can not willingly spend another mans money. If Mike Ashley was simply removing our money from our own contributions into his own pockets the way previous regimes had – I would be bitter – but nothing could be further from the truth. He has supported us – arguably saved us – after other men stole our futures.
By the same extension – I simply can not get my head around the fact – that a man – Keegan who was being paid 3.0m a year to shoulder responsibility – could not handle the loan signing of ONE player for reasons he did not agree with.
If Keegan walked on this principle alone – he should never be allowed in the city again – he abandoned his family and left it to rot – he then came back and attempted to pickpocket all of the families money.
I – because of history and my previous respect for him – can not believe this was the only thing that made Keegan walk. He would have been unhappy in general – his defence (to us and the courts) is flawed:
IF he was happy – this is a trivial incident to work around given time and time alone.
IF he was generally unhappy and this was the straw that broke the camels back – he could not say that in court – as his case would be obliterated and NUFC would be victorious.
The conclusions for myself – please take time before you lash out at me are that : Either Keegan walked in a hissyfit on the signing of one loan player – or that He was unhappy and used this as an excuse and ran. In either case he does not come out of this well – he leaves as a hissyfitter or as a man who didnt state the real unhappiness for leaving in the trial (god forbid a teller of “untruths” ).
We then have to look at the club – the admittance that they misled fans. There are many elements at play here – one should not take them at face value. I need to explain:
I – as the panel – don’t believe that the club had stipulated to Keegan that he would not have the final say on transfers. I do believe that as Keegan knew that a Director of Football most likely Dennis Wise was to be appointed over him, that general conversations had taken place (as admitted by all) but nothing specific re this detail at all – The very fact someone is being appointed over you – implies by its nature – that the buck does not stop with you – neither side produce a single discussion about this issue as evidence. Keegan asserts “that’s what a managers role is” the club assert “he knew as he had been told” – I dont go along with that – I think they assumed he knew because of the obvious nature of the DOF role.
Also I dont believe the club told the truth in the trial – I believe Keegan was to have the ultimate say on most transfers – yet they saw a benefit to this loan – and took it. But I think they too have tried to win the case (just as Keegan did) by saying their press releases were misleading the fans. Again with Keegan there are two possibilities behind this rationale:
Either the club deliberately lied to the fans – as they knew the reaction to Dennis Wise having power OR in reality that Keegan did have the say on most matters – but they reserved the right to step in as and when to do business. (as anyone running a business would want)
There is no doubt about it, Newcastle United and Mike Ashleys board (at the time) do not come out of this well – again they show ignorance of the consequence of the press and failure to communicate and explain. They have not realised that their “misleading fans” defence would be seized upon, poor management indeed.
But in my opinion the real villain of the peace – is the man who turned his back on his family and the club he “loves”, walked out for the signing of one loan player, a man who didn’t try and stay the course in difficult times, a man who didnt care what happened to the club, fans and people he loves when he walked.
Kevin Keegan – the man who would have the miners and forefathers turning in their graves as he abandoned his post and then tried to strip the club bare, he put his fragile-ego ahead of everything that really mattered – you – me – and Newcastle United Football Club.
For myself – gone is the myth – the fallacy that Kevin Keegan loves this club – he loves himself – his own pockets and above all else he loves walking out on things he “loves” – way before he loves NUFC.
NUFCBlog Author: Stardust
Stardust has written 15 articles on this blog.
Stardust i ask again, you obviously won’t change your mind about Keegan, but what are your views of Mike Ashley now that he is a proven liar and has misled the fans on purpose?