Saturday Spotlight: Pain and glory of Keegan's dynasty

I saw Rob Lee's quote the other day saying he 'still thinks about it every day' and he's not far wrong," recalled Robbie Elliott, now in his second spell at Newcastle United.

"It's something as a player you didn't realise just how close we were and how we actually threw it away. At the time we just got on with it but the more you look back the worse it gets.

"I was only a young lad at the time and I thought there was still a few years of the club challenging for the title. But as it panned out that was our one chance, and it hurts deeply."

Newcastle ended the previous campaign in disappointing fashion. A sixth-placed finish wasn't good enough to guarantee a UEFA Cup place.

A lack of strength in depth in the club's armoury and the controversial transfer of Andy Cole to Old Trafford in a record £7m deal were contributory factors.

But Kevin Keegan, Tyneside's Pied Piper, was even more bullish about his side's prospects the following term and was more determined than ever to lift that first elusive title since 1927.

There was a definite air of expectancy as he invested £14m, in pre-season, supplementing his squad with the considerable talents of Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Warren Barton and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.

Their prospects were certainly boosted further when their rivals at Old Trafford allowed Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince to leave, only to replace them with kids from the club's academy.

The decision drew Alan Hanson's infamous comment on Match of the Day: "You'll never win anything with kids." How wrong he was.

But it was the Magpies' style of play which captured the imagination of the nation and installed them as the country's second favourite team.

The United boss wasn't one for the traditional pragmatic approach. He was more interested in the breathtaking paradigm of fluent, eloquent, one-touch football where attack became the best form of defence.

It was no more personified than by Ginola, a £2.5m signing from Paris Saint Germain.

Never had the British footballing public witnessed his like before.

Most footballers seem to flourish when they have time and space. The charismatic Frenchman, on the other hand, seemed to relish being heavily marked with his back to goal and with little room to manoeuvre.

"He was incredible. And from his first six months at the club he is the best footballer we have ever witnessed. He could do absolutely everything with the ball," reflected Elliott.

Clark readily agreed: "In terms of ability he was the best player I've ever worked alongside. We could never get the ball off him in training. For the first six or seven months he was unplayable and it must have been a dream for Les (Ferdinand)."

With Ginola branding his unique style of wing wizardry from the left, Keith Gillespie providing a more traditional pacey role on the opposite flank, Peter Beardsley applying vision, awareness and ammunition in the hole and Robert Lee supporting a bludgeoning Ferdinand through the middle, the swashbuckling Magpies destroyed just about everything which crossed their path.

They led the Premiership table from the curtain-raiser and the championship trophy was already said to have been at the jewellers, with United's name about to be etched on it, when it all went horribly wrong in late March.

There are several theories as to why the Magpies blew their 12-point lead.

Poor form in the run in, Hanson's tendency to reveal the best way to beat United on Match of the Day and Keegan's tinkering are just three.

The main catalyst for destruction, seen by many, was Keegan's decision to splash £7m on Colombian international Faustino Asprilla from Parma.

This may have been one dynamic but the signing of David Batty was another contributory factor.

The United boss believed the side was in need of some defensive cover to protect his rich vein of attacking wealth and invested a further £4m capturing the signature of Blackburn's midfield enforcer as a consequence.

Batty's arrival signalled the end of Clark's involvement.

The paradox to all this was that Batty, who made his debut in the 1-0 home defeat to Manchester United, was arguably "our best player in the final run in", as Clark pointed out. Unfortunately the system ceased to run as smoothly when Keegan introduced his two new recruits.

Gillespie was another jettisoned to the sidelines as the manager tinkered with his already tried and trusted magic formula.

But why fix something that isn't broken?

Clark was asked to sacrifice his usual attacking role - prior to the new campaign - to sit in front of the back four and protect. It was a role in which he revelled. Despite his change of responsibility he remained a forward-thinking player, looking to be positive from a defensive role, whereas Batty was largely negative.

But Clark was magnanimous when this theory was put to him. He believes Newcastle didn't win the title in 1996 because 'the squad as a whole did not have the championship-winning experience' of their nearest rivals.

Elliott, on the other hand, had a simpler explanation contributing to United's fall from grace.

"Manchester United," insisted the United defender. "Eric Cantona came back from his ban and he was absolutely obscene.

"He was winning games by himself and the big game was when we lost 1-0 to them at home.

"And there was Peter Schmeichel. He just kept keeping clean sheets," added Clark. Elliott continued: "Of course there was no way we were going to play for a draw, but in hindsight a draw would have been good for us.

"The players that had been playing had done a fantastic job to get us where we were but there is no way you can put any blame on the transfers because they were fantastic players in their own right.

"For whatever reason it just didn't work out. But to lose a 12-point lead was devastating."

There is no doubt Keegan's reign at St James Park evoked some of the happiest memories in the club's recent history and both Clark and Elliott admit it was a special time on Tyneside.

Elliott said: "He (Keegan) was fantastic. His enthusiasm was infectious.

"When you were going to training you couldn't fail but enjoy it and to this day it is still the best time I have had in football.

"The senior lads used to say to me, Lee Clark, Steve Howey and Steve Watson, 'look, enjoy this while you can because this is not normal, it is not usually like this'.

"We didn't know any different, we just thought we were going to get this for the rest of our careers. How right they were.

"We would go in with a smile on our faces, everyone was friends, training was fantastic, and away from football we all remained friends.

"The atmosphere around the club and the city was buzzing.''

Clark agreed: "I have worked with some fantastic managers in my time but Kevin was at the top of the tree as far I am concerned. It wasn't just the winning, it was the type of football that was being played.

"It was free-flowing and we played with a lot of flair both at home and away. The critics used to say we weren't good enough defensively but that was a myth because we ended up with the second or third best defensive record that year.

"It still hurts."

Glenn Roeder was installed as Newcastle's new boss this week after steadying the United ship through choppy waters, but talk to supporters in the pubs and clubs on Tyneside and the favoured choice as manager is Keegan.

" He was a special man and deserves to be in football," said Elliott. "But if he doesn't want to be then we have to respect that.

"He was mentioned last year (to come back here) and if it was to work out it would be fantastic. We can all hang our hat on Kevin and the glory days but maybe he feels he does not want to spoil it. It would be nice to see him back in some capacity."

Clark added: "I don't know what his thoughts are. I've never spoken to him for such a long time. He's never been around in terms of media work and the impression I get is that he's had his time in football and it's time to move on.

"I would love to have him back, as would most people in the club, but I don't think it will happen. And it would be disrespectful to Glenn, who has done a fantastic job in the last few weeks and deserves a chance."

As Elliott reflected, it was a special time on Tyneside and although the nature of how the Magpies threw away the championship still hurts, he, like all United fans, still can't resist the masochistic urge to reminisce over the glorious failure on celluloid, despite watching the football version of the Hollywood epic Titanic.

He said: "I was around my mam's house not so long ago and saw the 'Entertainers' and 'Black and White' videos and I got them out.

"It's pathetic really but my sons watched them and they wanted to keep on watching them as they were full of goals, the crowd was going mental, there were big flags and it was something special. I will never forget."

And neither will the Geordie nation.

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