Keegan has now walked - The final word?

You have around £1.4bn in the bank so you clearly are doing something right. There was a day in your life that your bank account went up by nearly a billion pounds in one single 24 hour period. You aren't a stupid man clearly but then you get to the first week of September in 2008 and you've invented and swallowed a vast amount of moron pills.

You are Mike Ashley. You own Newcastle United Football Club. You brought back the man they call 'The Messiah' and straight away your paying public are slurping at your feet. You are one of them. You wear a replica top with 'King Kev' on the back of it. You sit amongst the fans. You are the man that they believe will take you back to the top with Keegan at the helm.

Then you make some changes.

You bring in Dennis Wise seemingly over Keegan's head. You alienate the faithful. You then take Wise down to London and have him run the club from down there. You give Dennis Wise total control over players both incoming and outgoing. You don't list to Keegan when he says who he wants in and who he wants out. You basically make every attempt possible just plain and simply piss off your fanbase.

Monday was a stunning day in the world of football but it just couldn't compare with the goings on from Tuesday through Thursday ending in Keegan announcing his departure via a statement through the League Managers Association:

“I’ve been working desperately hard to find a way forward with the directors, but sadly that has not proved possible. It’s my opinion that a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want. It remains my fervent wish to see Newcastle United do well in the future and I feel incredibly sorry for the players, staff and most importantly the supporters. I have been left with no choice other than to leave.”

It means that owner Mike Ashley has chosen a guy with little background in football management or coaching over the man the public would walk through a brick wall for. Dennis Wise wasn't liked as a player and now he is being vilified after the owner chose to back him instead of following Keegan to the promised land.

Quite simply you do not appoint Keegan and then not back him to the hilt. To do what he's done is lunacy of the highest order. You might get some hacks like Steve Curry saying that Keegan has thrown his toys out of the pram, but if you are promised something in your job and then it turns out to be nothing like that then you have every right be annoyed. Keegan tried to get it to work but Ashley wouldn't budge on his plan and Keegan walked.

Keegan is not a quitter. He was promised things that didn't come to fruition and felt his position was untenable. Quite right too. If Newcastle do pursue Keegan for compensation for breaking his contract then they would be committing commercial suicide. The Toon Army would follow Keegan into the fire whereas I doubt at this very moment whether they would even piss on Wise or Ashley if they were on fire.