It is like blaming Kevin Keegan for Newcastle United not winning the Premier League | OneFootball

In February 1992, Kevin Keegan arrived as manager at a club that had been so badly run for so many years, with no ambition.

Newcastle United were on their way to what looked a certain drop to the third tier under a poor manager with a demoralised squad.

A recent change of ownership had given Newcastle United fans some hope, however, Kevin Keegan looked to have a near impossible job.

However, the new manager worked his magic and in the remainder of that 1991/92 season he managed to steady the ship, get some important massive results, the players and fans believed in him, then the rest as they say, is history.

After survival was reached, a busy summer saw some inspired value for money signings, both mature and younger ones. Newcastle United smashing it the next season, winning the second tier title in the 1992/93 season and roaring back to the Premier League. Kevin Keegan also making some excellent late season signings with Andy Cole the very special stand out.

It was same again as more inspired signings arrived in summer 1993, including mature ones, came in to help cope with the demands of the Premier League. A 33 year old Peter Beardsley amongst them.

Unbelievable, Newcastle United finished third in the Premier League straight after promotion, Kevin Keegan bringing European football back to Tyneside after a 17 year gap. United picked up 77 points in what was then a 42 match Premier League season.

Issue 65 – July 1994

Next season, Newcastle United fell away slightly, 72 points (from 42 games) saw them finish sixth and that meant no qualification for Europe. It had been a more challenging season. After making an astonishing start winning their first six PL matches and then nine of their first eleven with no defeats and two draws, a combination of injuries, extra demands of European football and the fact NUFC had a far smaller squad in terms of depth than their competitors, saw United fall away. However, Kevin Keegan was already planning ahead and made the brave mid-season move to sell Andy Cole for £6m, with United also getting Keith Gillespie from Man U as part of the deal.

Brilliant signings such as David Ginola and Les Ferdinand in summer 1995 then saw the jigsaw really come together. This team that Kevin Keegan had built, going on to finish runners-up in the Premier League the next two season.

Issue 80 – August 1995

The 1995/96 season is of course the one that really sticks in the memory of all Newcastle United fans who were around at that time, for many great reasons, some not so great.

Another electric start to the season saw KK’s side win 11 of their opening 13 PL matches, drawing one and losing only the one.

After a slight knock of only one win in four games picking up five points, Kevin Keegan got things really moving again with seven wins in the next eight to take United well clear of their rivals.

However, a spell of eight games from late February to early April 1996, saw five defeats and only two wins in a run of eight Premier League matches. A run where so many things went against Newcastle United. Bad luck, bad decisions from match officials, fine margins, plus injuries playing a part. Maybe though the biggest issue for sure had been the fact that despite the signings that United had made for this 1995/96 season, when certain players lost a bit of form, maybe just needed a game or two on the bench, there was no alternative but for them to keep playing as NUFC didn’t have the squad that say… Manchester United had.

A shocking challenge (by Gary Neville I think) at Old Trafford in late December had put Gillespie out of action for a lengthy period, then a couple of weeks later David Ginola was kicked around the pitch at Highbury in a League Cup quarter-final as he tormented the Arsenal defence, the referee giving him no protection whatsoever. Then the first time Ginola reacted to one of the assaults he was instantly red carded. The two wingers had been absolutely key to the title challenge and while Gillespie was out of action through injury for some time, most Newcastle fans agreed that Ginola was never ever quite so consistently good after that Arsenal match in the League Cup.

Kevin Keegan regrouped in the final strait of that 1995/96 season, three 1-0 wins in a row, then it looked a fourth in row at Forest in the final away match. Newcastle missing loads of chances when a goal up and then late on a Woan wonder goal from nowhere saw Newcastle robbed of going into the final game of season level on points with Man U.

Who knows what might have been different on that final day of the season with more pressure on Man U but in the event they won at Middlesbrough and a demoralised Newcastle could only draw at home to Spurs.

The narrative for the media of course was how Kevin Keegan had ‘lost’ the Premier League.

No surprise. The media slant that is.

What was a surprise was the quite sizeable number of Newcastle fans happy to go along with that.

What Kevin Keegan had done was remarkable, both that season and especially of course where he had taken us from in only four and half years. From what looked certain relegation to the third tier, to ‘losing’ the Premier League title on the final day of the 1995/96 season.

Quite ridiculous, in my opinion. Fans saying why didn’t he do this or that in this game or other, as though football is a perfect science.

For those who say it was reckless attacking that ‘lost’ the Premier League for Newcastle United, well Keegan’s side conceded only two more goals than Man U.

What the media and certain Newcastle fans didn’t want to acknowledge was the fact that Man U had a much bigger and better quality squad in terms of depth.

Also the fact that thanks largely to two world class players, Schmeichel and Cantona, Man U went on an absolutely staggering run of late form. In their final 15 PL matches that 1995/96 season, Man U won 13, drew one and lost only one.

Kevin Keegan didn’t lose the 1995/96 Premier League, Man U won it.

The fine margins and bad luck summed up perfectly when Newcastle United battered Man U at St James’ Park on 4 March 1996, Keegan’s team should have been 5-0 by half-time, they played better than when they did win 5-0 against Man U only months later!

Les Ferdinand alone should have had a hat-trick before the break but Schmeichel produced arguably his greatest ever performance, whilst Cantona scored pretty much the only real chance that came Man U’s way.

Sometimes things just don’t go your way. Newcastle United and Kevin Keegan deserved to win the Premier League that season but as I say, bad luck and fine margins went against them, plus NUFC were always with the disadvantage of a smaller squad lacking the depth in quality Man U have had.

Which brings me to Eddie Howe.

Blaming Eddie Howe for the fall off this season compared to the previous year and a half, is simply bizarre, in my opinion.

Like all managers there will be things with hindsight even he will say he would have done differently, but that doesn’t change the fact, that this season became all but an impossibility to manage successfully from early December 2023 onwards.

For pretty much all Newcastle United fans who were around in the early 1990s, Kevin Keegan will be the greatest manager we have had in their lifetimes. Eddie Howe though has showed very similar promise, maybe even of one day surpassing what KK did.

The parallels are obvious.

Howe came in after a change of ownership and inherited a desperate situation thanks to Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce.

A brilliant job initially to save United from relegation.

In that 2021/22 season, the last 19 games, the entire second half of that Premier League season, Newcastle had the third best form. Astonishing when you consider the situation he inherited, a demoralised squad that wasn’t even properly fit for purpose when he came in.

Like Kevin Keegan, Eddie Howe has had backing in the transfer market and made many inspired signings, including some who were of a more mature age. Even with that backing though, United still with squads that cost far less than at least six of their competitors and the same when it comes to the wage bills.

Plus of course unlike the days of Kevin Keegan, United’s rivals have helped construct a system designed to try and ensure they get ever more rich and powerful and try to make it all but impossible for others to close the gap, on and off the pitch.

Despite that, Eddie Howe inspired Newcastle United to a fourth place finish in 2022/23 and a return to the Champions League for the first time in two decades, also leading NUFC to their first cup final in 24 years. Remarkable.

This 2023/24 season, all the experts were saying that it was an impossibility for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United to repeat the (relative) success of 2022/23, extra demands of European football, not a big enough squad (thanks largely to PSR/FFP limitations) and of course a reality check that the group of players he’d initially inherited, were largely not top four / Champions League level.

Fast forward to late November 2023 and despite losing his key summer signing Tonali to an out of the blue gambling ban and a ridiculous number of injuries to key players, Eddie Howe did have Newcastle United competitive.

Late November saw NUFC have three games in a week where Eddie Howe had to use the same starting eleven as no other viable alternatives, that eleven including a 17 year old kid who had only just made his first ever Premier League start.

That week Newcastle dominated both Chelsea and Man U, winning both games, in between they were cheated by a shocking penalty decision in Paris that prevented all but certain Champions League progression to the knockout stages in the fifth group game.

After the Premier League win over Man U on Saturday 2 December, Newcastle United were fifth in the Premier League and had upcoming matches in the next 17 days that could see them through to the last 16 of the Champions League and a two legged League Cup semi-final (that would have been against second tier Middlesbrough!).

Nick Pope though got a freak shoulder injury right at the end of that win over Man U and quite clearly, for me anyway, that was the injury that broke the black and white camel’s back.

For me, it hasn’t just been one and a half years of astonishing (relative) success under Eddie Howe, it has been two years.

As the first half of this season was remarkable.

All the experts said it was going to be impossible for Eddie Howe this season.

Yet by the night of 2 December 2023, he had United fifth in the Premier League and on the verge of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League and on the verge of another League Cup semi-final, which would have been only the third in NUFC history, two of the three under Eddie Howe.

All of this despite the Tonali blow and an unprecedented NUFC injury list, the worst I have ever seen as a fan.

So if the experts reckoned it was impossible for Eddie Howe and Newcastle United to compete as they had done the previous season, just how staggering must it be that he had managed it despite everything going against him?

As I say though, that injury to Nick Pope was the one that tipped Newcastle United over the edge.

A near impossible situation had become… impossible.

Even then it took cruel bad luck and fine margins to conspire. All of those away draws in the cups, the quality of teams NUFC were drawn against, then half an hour away from beating AC Milan and last 16 of the Champions League, that injury time goal at Chelsea that prevented another League Cup semi-final.

These last four months proved impossible even for Eddie Howe. If you think any other manager could have done better this season in the circumstances then I’d like to meet him.

Saturday of course was the killer blow, a stab to the heart that we knew for sure was coming ever since a few weeks ago we were handed Manchester City yet again in the domestic cups. You literally couldn’t make it up.

Even with everything thrown at him and bad luck continuing to stack up at his door, these last two and a half months have still seen Eddie Howe manage a run of six wins, two draws and four defeats in 12 games. Those defeats home and away to Man City, away at Arsenal, plus that away game at Stamford Bridge, another classic case of individual mistakes during the match as well as injuries to Gordon and others making life so difficult for Eddie Howe.

So for those of you who want to blame Eddie Howe for why Newcastle United have ‘failed’ this season, then I can only think you would also be the ones who’d blame Kevin Keegan for what happened back in the 90s.

Eddie Howe just needs the continued support of the (vast majority) of the fans, just as Kevin Keegan did back in the day.

It is Eddie Howe’s ‘fault’ that Newcastle United were in the Champions League in the first place…

My belief is that he will be taking us back there, just so long as both the Newcastle United owners and the club’s supporters, stay resolute and keep their eye on the ball.