If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.
Keegan
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Anthony Quinn, Faber 2025 ISBN 978-0-571-39924-6
This excellent biography of Kevin Keegan is unusual in two ways. The author is a successful novelist not a football writer and secondly he has never met Keegan. He watched Keegan as a player and observed him throughout his career. His analysis is excellent.
He presents Keegan as ahead of his time, negotiating his own contracts yet always knowing his value. He was ahead of his time in deciding to play abroad (Hamburg). At Newcastle he negotiated a contract where he was paid a bonus if his presence increased attendances and it did.
The author refers to an incident when a young Keegan was called up by England but not selected: “he packed his bags and went home. An early sign of his petulant tendency to storm off when things didn't go his way”.
There is a reference to Keegan on Superstars. As the author says the very notion of elite sportspeople risking their reputation on national telly to prove they were better at kayaking or weightlifting than a boxer or rugby player is inconceivable today.
The book is excellent on his management style. He had no interest in tactics. His philosophy was “I buy good players and let them play”. He wanted his team to be entertainers and the neutral's favourite. A favourite instruction to players was “to go out and drop hand grenades”.
I knew Gavin Peacock when he was at Newcastle. He told me the Keegan had told him that his job was to drop bombs. Not surprisingly, Gavin had no idea what that meant. In contrast when Gavin was being marked out of games, Ossie Ardiles would sit down with him and talk about how to lose his marker – a more practical type of coaching.
The book is excellent on why Keegan failed as England manager: Keegan thrived on the day-to-day routine of working with players and building a team, which was an expression of his own personality. With England between games when he was not working with players he felt disconnected with the job. The technical side of coaching did not interest him.
The book’s pithy summary of Keegan at England was : “Dearth of ideas, dearth of tactical acumen, dearth of enthusiasm for the job”.
I read in Rio Ferdinand’s autobiography that he was sorry that Glenn Hoddle lost his job with England “because he would have made me a better player”. That kind of coaching would never have appealed to Keegan.
The wordsmith author made me smile when he quotes Keegan on appointment as Manchester City manager, saying that he would “to turn round the sleeping giant” The author asks if he should not rather have been trying to wake the giant
In one of his autobiographies Keegan said how lucky he was to have had a career in football “I would have played for nothing”. The book suggests that this is completely untrue as Keegan was very much motivated by money.
An excellent book.