Get the latest NUFC transfer and takeover news straight to your inbox for FREE by signing up to our newsletter Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Kevin Keegan insists he has no regrets about returning to Newcastle for a second spell as manager.

Having guided Newcastle from the brink of relegation to Division Two to the brink of the Premier League title in the 1990’s, Keegan returned to the club for a second spell as manager in 2008.

Having steadied the ship and end the 2007/08 season strongly, many felt Newcastle under Keegan were set up for a decent season in the 2008/09 campaign.

But after a summer of false promises and frustration in the summer transfer market, Keegan resigned at the start of the season.

Two examples he cited were Newcastle ’s attempts to sign Luka Modric from Dinamo Zagreb, who has gone on to win the Champions League three times at Real Madrid, and Liverpool Champions League winner Sami Hyypia.

Both well known stories, Keegan once again relayed how Newcastle had agreements to sign both players only to be undermined by the powers above.

“At the time I thought wow, here we go again,” Keegan said while speaking at an exclusive talk-in at Newcastle’s Grosvenor Casino.

“I have no regrets at all. All it has done it has soured me from football.

“Sir John Hall was a gentleman. Douglas tried to grow the club more than Sir John. Douglas wanted to sign everyone.

“We had the opposite problems to most managers. They complain because they can’t sign who they want.

“Douglas tried to sign Roberto Baggio from Juventus. The second time, we couldn’t sign anybody.

“We tried to sign Modric. Modric’s agent was a massive fan of mine and he was about to sign for Spurs.

“He hopped on a train to Newcastle and all we had to do was sell the club to him.

“Mr Jimenez said I’ve watched him, I don’t think he is big enough or strong enough to play in the Premier League. That was the end of that, he killed it stone-dead.

“It was difficult. I had bought a house because I don’t believe in staying in hotels and I was still trying to sell that a year later. I had moved my wife for what was essentially a waste of time.

“It is hard to run a football club when people are working against you. Another example. We tried to sign Sami Hyypia from Liverpool.

“Liverpool had told him he had been a great servant and they would let him go for a certain amount of money.

“Terry Mac had spoken to him, found out the fee and what he wanted and it was a done deal.

“Sami rang Terry Mac two days later and said what is happening here? They have offered a million less than what I have told you.

“That undermined us because then the clubs don’t take you seriously.”

In the previous season, Keegan’s Newcastle embarked on a seven-game unbeaten run to pull themselves away from relegation trouble.

The front three of Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka were starting to gel and Keegan felt he had an opportunity to kick the club on the following season.

Of Newcastle’s six signings in the summer of 2009, only Sebastien Bassong was the recommendation of Keegan.

The club failed to deliver his preferred targets and instead the club signed players on the recommendation of Tony Jimenez and Dennis Wise.

The double signing of Ingnacio Gonzalez on loan from Valencia and Xisco from Deportivo La Coruna proved to be the final straw for Keegan, who offered his resignation.

Xisco made just seven Premier League appearances and Gonzalez a solitary substitute appearance - vindicating Keegan’s convictions that they weren’t good enough for the Premier League.

And almost 10 years on, Keegan still rues what he feels was an opportunity missed.

“It was an opportunity missed because we had some good players there, we could have built on that.

“We had Obafemi Martins who could have been a great player. We had Michael Owen, I know what the fans think of him up here but he was a very good player - please don’t underestimate that.

“I moved him back into midfield a little bit because he was one of the few who could keep the ball and then Viduka came to life a little bit.

“For those five or six games we won on the trot, it got us out of the mess we were in.”

He continued: “The only player I signed was a lad called Bassong. I knew the agent and he had already got me two good players before and he phoned me up and said there is a kid you should see at Metz. He is only 19 and they have just been relegated and any of you who saw his debut at Doncaster - he was so good.

“But that was the only signing I made. The end for me was when we had two players signed and I got asked if I could take my picture with them.

“I pulled the photographer away and I spoke to the agent and said can you tell these guys it is nothing personal against them but I’m not having my photo taken on the pitch with them.

“That was the end for me. Call me old-fashioned but I like to know what I am signing, what is this person like, is he a good pro?

“In a football club the only way to be successful is if you are rowing the same way. Me and Sir John Hall had our differences but we sat down, debated it and then John did what he had to do.”

Despite all of the troubles of his brief second reign on Tyneside, Keegan insists he has no regrets about having another crack at management on Tyneside.

“I had people telling me one thing and doing another. But regrets? No. Why? If I hadn’t have done it I would have had regrets.

“But it has put me off football because I think football was always run by gentlemen and I think in the last 10 years it has got totally different people involved because of the money in it.”

Kevin Keegan was speaking at a live Q&A event at Grosvenor Casino, Newcastle, hosted by TV and Radio presenter Colin Murray, in association with the charity COCO.