Kevin Keegan was keen to make it clear that he will continue to be the one who calls the shots at Newcastle when the regular campaign ends and the transfer silly season starts.
Keegan shed light on how the Newcastle backroom will work during the summer with football director Dennis Wise and fellow director Tony Jimenez both playing a heavy hand in scouting and advising, but the ultimate decisions falling to him.
“Dennis and Tony are not there to say: ‘We’ve got to sign this player’,” he began to explain.
“They’re there to say: ‘You should go and look at this player’? and that’s how it’s working.
“They’ve already put names forward but, until we see them, they won’t come into this football club. If we think like Dennis and Tony do when we see them, we’d love to have them at Newcastle.
“If they bring players in and they’re not my players I wouldn’t be managing this football club.
“Dennis and I talk a lot. We had a meeting two weeks ago, took our list in and they put theirs down. They have a massive database of all parts of Europe and South America.
“I’m less keen on South American players coming into this country, that doesn’t mean we won’t get any but it’s a big move for them.
“I would prefer to sign players with Premier League experience. I think there is probably a balance between the two.
“As far as their list goes, we’ll be flying off over the next three or four weeks looking at the players we don’t know. We know their names but there are one or two on the list from Dennis that I haven’t seen play.
“We’re going to work together. We’ve got no reason not to. Nothing that Dennis is doing at this club is in any way detrimental to me doing my job.
“We’re all looking at the same players and, if we’re competing with the top four, I wouldn’t be confident because they can offer more than we can in terms of Champions League football and the top four places are almost guaranteed to these clubs.
“But they cannot collect all the pebbles on the beach and, if they’re not interested, I would back us against anyone.”
Keegan also commented on both the physical and psychological status of Turkish midfielder Emre, who has not always been able to count on a game under the new boss, even when fit.
“A lot of people say Emre has been unsettled but I don’t see an unsettled player here,” the ex England midfielder added.
“I see a player who is obviously very keen to play in Euro 2008, which he will for Turkey, and, if he doesn’t play in the next two weeks, I’ll let him go a week early to their training camp.
“I don’t want to keep him around here if he’s not going to be involved and, with the way the team are playing, that may be the case.
“We have four African players playing four World Cup games between June 1-21 so we need to decide how much of a summer break we give them.”
If Newcastle win at Upton Park on Saturday they will narrow the gap on 10th placed West Ham to only two points with two games of the season remaining. This is of psychological worth to the Geordies, as a matter of weeks ago there seemed no chance of a top half finish for Newcastle, who are undefeated in their last six.
Derek Wanner, Goal.com
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