WHEN all else fails it seems The Northern Echo can always be relied on to spin Newcastle United/Kevin Keegan cleaner than they deserve to be.

Let’s be absolutely clear here. Keegan claimed £25m and got £2m. Given that he was apparently offered £4m by the club this is nothing short of a disaster. His original claim revealed an extraordinarily mercenary attitude to a club/region that Keegan claims to revere. The tribunal’s additional verdict, that Keegan has no grounds for any further claim on the club, is a humiliation.

From the club’s point-ofview they have been revealed, yet again, as an arrogant, conceited shambles, forced to scout players on the more comical parts of the internet.

Nobody won. Both are bigtime losers.

Your decision, and that of much of the media, to use Dennis Wise to divert attention away from the club’s institutional failings is predictable given the incestuous relationship between much of the media, regionally and nationally, and the Geordie club.

It tries to ignore the fact this is the latest saga in a sequence of self-delusion by the club and its supporters.

Since Sir John Hall took over the club the media has worked hand in glove with the St James’ Park outfit to ‘big up’ the club and, by implication, to down Sunderland, repeatedly ignoring the delusions of grandeur spreading from the Toon.

If The Northern Echo had an ounce of self-respect the headline should have been ‘Murky world of Newcastle is revealed’ but the paper didn’t have the guts or the honesty to do that. And ‘King Kev’ is an integral and central part of that world.

We’ve got the Clown Prince, Newcastle Utd and its fans have just got the clown.

Christopher Walker, by email