Kevin Keegan yesterday.Today, the League Managers Association released a statement on former Newcastle United manager, Kevin Keegan, who is currently suing the club for £25,100,000 for alleged constructive dismissal. Meanwhile, Newcastle United are countersuing the pint sized ‘Mighty Mouse’ for breach of contract.
The statement reads:
25 Sep 2009
LMA STATEMENT REGARDING KEVIN KEEGAN
Following the conclusion of the arbitration process between Kevin Keegan and Newcastle United Football Club, Richard Bevan, Chief Executive of the LMA made this statement;
“Having heard the evidence from both sides, the Panel has reserved judgement and there will be no further comment on the process until the Panel have published their findings.” (more…)
Damning emails?It’s the News of the World, so don’t take it too seriously, but they claim that Keegan has a bunch of emails that will prove Mike Ashley made his position untenable and he was therefore constructively dismissed.
‘Sources close to Keegan’ (hmm) claim that the emails will blow Ashley’s case out of the water. One such source said:
“There are emails people have never seen. If the truth comes out about what went on, then Ashley and Wise will be decimated. The last thing Kevin wanted to do was walk out but his position was impossible.”
The article then goes on to claim that all parties in the tribunal have signed a declaration stating that they will not leak information, although that doesn’t seem to have prevented the leaked information that somehow seems to have found its way to the News of the World. (more…)
Is it really a year?It was about a year ago today, just after the 2008 summer transfer window closed, when Newcastle United went into the free-fall it has yet to recover from.
To be fair, the club wasn’t exactly setting the world alight before that and, arguably, the last period of stability ended when Sir Bobby Robson was given the sack. Freddie Shepherd had been spending the club into debt and had installed the revolving door for managers with both Roeder and Souness serving for less than a season before Shepherd settled on Sam Allardyce.
Then along came Ashley. Initially he was partnered by Chris Mort, who had helped Ashley with the takeover, and in January 2008 the pair sacked Allardyce, sensationally appointing Kevin Keegan as manager. A lot of people felt Mort was a good communicator who built important relationships with the fans, keeping them informed of the goings-on at St James’s Park and setting up things like the Newcastle United Foundation to bring the club into the community. Mort left in June 2008 and was replaced by Derek Llambias and thus began the regime of ‘Dastardly and Muttley’ at Newcastle United and it has been like Wacky Races ever since. (more…)
