Rob Lee thinks Kevin Keegan is the right man at the right time for Newcastle, but needs room to work his magic once again at Newcastle.
Kevin Keegan - right man at the right time
But Rob thinks Keegan must be left alone to get on with the important job of resurrecting Newcastle once again.
Things have changed at the club since Kevin was first here, and there are other executives working various jobs at the club.
But Rob Lee is convinced Newcastle can get back to the top with Kevin in charge again:
“I think he would be the man to get Newcastle back to the top.”
“If he was left alone and he could run the club as he did before, as Sir Alex Ferguson runs Manchester United or as Arsene Wenger runs Arsenal,â€
If things work the way they are supposed to, we don’t see much danger in having Dennis Wise, Jeff Vetere and Tony Jimenez handling recruitment activities at the club.
As long as they know they are helpers to Keegan in getting the players in that he needs.
They can also bring players to Kevin, that Keegan may not know about, but Kevin has to be 100% in control of which players the club buys and sells.
That’s because Keegan is completely responsible for the playing side of the club, and that’s what he will be measured on.
And Lee added:
“I think he (Keegan) has got a difficult job.”
“I’m not a lover of this Continental system of somebody else buying players for you. I think that’s a manager’s job.”
“If he’s a good manager he’ll buy good players — and Kevin’s track record, especially at Newcastle, proved he bought bloody good players.”
“He’s got an eye for a player but if he’s got people doing that for him, how long he will tolerate that and how good a system that is I’m not so sure.â€
We don’t think it’s a manager’s job to do the actual buying of the players, since that was always done by Freddy Shepherd before Ashley even bought the club.
Kevin is responsible to identify the players he wants, and we don’t think there should be any pressure on who Kevin buys and sells, otherwise he can hardly be held accountable for the playing performance of the club.
We think it can be successful, but Kevin must be responsible for selecting all players who come and go at the club.
The second thing the board needs to start doing is to ensure Kevin knows what’s going on behind the scenes, and never let him be blind-sided.
If we do those things above, there’s really no reason why the 3 Recruitment guys along with Kevin, cannot form a very successful and lucrative partnership for the Newcastle club.
After all, that’s what we all want to see.
Comments welcome.
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25 responses so far ↓
1 ilkkatoon // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:14
i think the transfer system has changed for the better, because keegan now (this is the way i think it goes)
submits a list of players he needs to sign due to identified weaknesses in the team ie defenders like cuellar and collochini
the recruitment team check them out see if there available transfer prices etc.
goes to ashley, if ashley is willing to pay keegan gets the final say and the bid goes forward. I dont think its as bad as it all looks i think it is very organized and deserves alot more credit than people give it
2 Ed Harrison // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:18
ilkkatoon - agree completely - but the press seems to keep suggesting that Dennis Wise has a job of selecting players - he doesn’t - and it would never work that way in any case.
The set-up can work very well as long as Kevin controls who comes and goes - and the Recruitment 3 are helpers to Kevin in that regard.
3 izzymc // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:19
guess time will tell if it works. i hope it does and hope we see some signings soon to lift the gloom on tyneside
4 rlw // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:22
lee ur spot on i wish u were still here
5 Bill F SPLASH THE CASH ASH // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:24
Whoever is responsible for getting the players and I would hope KK has a big say in this. Our lot does seem to be given the impression of a runner still stuck in his blocks. It’s easy to say there is still plenty of time but a lot of the players we appear to be linked with will have gone to other clubs if they do not get their fingers out.
6 seetow // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:35
i remember there was one instance at chelsea - when frank arnesen or somebody was their sporting/technical director and mourinho wanted to buy micah richards for 5mil, but he overruled him and bought khalid boulahrouz for 7 mil.. hope we don’t make the same mistake with dennis wise.
7 Hadrian // Jun 15, 2008 at 14:53
spot on by Rob Lee there .
8 catawbamag // Jun 15, 2008 at 15:03
Set up sounds good, but I’m not buying it. To many bad vibes coming from Kev who didnt know what was going on prior to the “showdown” meeting with Ashley.
We will have to see what pans out, but I have no confidence or trust in Wise or Jimenez. They have no track record to justify any.
Back the manager I say.
9 Julio Geordio // Jun 15, 2008 at 15:26
The proof will definitely be in the pudding regarding this new recruitment team setup.
I am convinced though, that if KK wasn’t happy with the situation he would have said so and maybe even walked out if he felt it hampered his plans for the club too much.
KK wants money to spend and although nothing has been seen as yet, I think after the meeting in London after the Top 4-gate issue, if the money wasn’t there again KK would have walked by now. Because of this, I’m putting the lack of transfer activity down to Euro 2008 and other clubs managerial changes.
This does, however, not excuse the lack of contract extensions to Owen and especially Taylor.
10 Nick C // Jun 15, 2008 at 15:37
Julio, one major difference between now and the 90’s is that KK has ploughed a large part of his fortune into his soccer circus. He is a highly moralistic guy, but I don’t think he can afford to walk away from his NUFC £4 Mill.
11 craig chisholm // Jun 15, 2008 at 15:44
i think the whole thing is disjointed and is jsut not working . if it was working we would have had some players by now. keegan would not have been involved in clear the air talks and we would not have keegan saying he would love to bring in some huge money signings again on the same day mort says that we will make no such signings. You can look to other eveidence such as keegan in very public says he wanted owens contract tied up as he is the biggest signign we can make this summer……….er like four months ago now. its not working and it will never work, not with keegan. if they want this system to work they need to put in a manager with no balls and no pride or guts. they need a dummy of a manager who will just sit there and do what he is told. no world class big name manager will take it.
12 daniel // Jun 15, 2008 at 15:56
On another matter, if all these reports are true about Milner wanting to move to Liverpool, we should let him. I find it irritating when a player suggests its a dream to leave his current club. He’s been getting well paid, playing in front of the best fans in the country. Its not our fault we crap, thats down to the bloody players and idiotic managers. He’s overrated any how.
13 Taiwantoon // Jun 15, 2008 at 17:27
I find it hard to criticise the system as it works for some clubs. The problem is that I don’t trust Dennis Wise, simple as that.
14 Leo // Jun 15, 2008 at 18:32
rob lee is a legend, love the interviews he gives, they are always entertaining for sure.
keegan better be given what he wants otherwise there will be alot of angry and upset people
15 Gun Indonesian Gordie // Jun 15, 2008 at 18:42
I don’t think it proves to work well, the transfer system. See how many players we’ve got. None and we even lost to Spurs in convincing players to come
16 Matthew // Jun 15, 2008 at 19:20
The last time Keegan was here he got rid of the reserve team forcing Michael Carrick to move on to West Ham as a youngster so perhaps it’s not the best idea to leave it all to him.
17 normski1930z // Jun 15, 2008 at 19:45
ill be honest i agree with taiwantoon i just do not trust dennis wise, the thing is in life you come across people who u instantly dislike,u dont no why but u just dont like them and i am afraid to say dw falls into that catalogue of people, i think the guy is a knave in the pack… just a thought.
18 DMAG // Jun 16, 2008 at 0:21
I don’t think Wise and Co have the personality to attract top talent without throwing cash at them. They cannot sell the the club like KK can and I don’t see where any the current recruitment team have the experience necessary to compete against the likes of Spurs,Villa ,Everton City, Pompey, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or Man Utd when it comes to attracting any kind of talent!
19 Spyro // Jun 16, 2008 at 0:46
“…sell the club like kk” what are you on about!? kk is no longer a name that will attract players so sending him along will not make a difference. Face it people, no players care about kk now, players care about big names like ramos, mourinho, scolari, ancelotti, wenger etc.
20 richie // Jun 16, 2008 at 1:12
spyro ur prob right but kk is the man for the job
21 Matthew // Jun 16, 2008 at 1:57
Spyro is of course correct, the Keegan selling the club myth goes back to when he was here before and he did sell it to the likes of Rob Lee and Ferdinand, the difference back then though was Keegan being England captain and European player of the year while those 2 were growing up, he had a similar standing in the game in his playing days as David Beckham had a few years back.
Now though none of the foreign players in their early 20’s will know much about him except maybe the awful job he done as England boss, even Martins has said he had to look him up on youtube because he didn’t have a clue about him ffs.
22 clinta // Jun 16, 2008 at 8:17
ED and Ikka I must say I assumed that the recruitment team where the ones that went and found players, not KK(KK obvoiusly would let them know where he needs the team strengthened)? as well.. that should be there main job right? then they inform KK about them and he gives his opinion on whether they sound a prospect or not?
I do feel it a shame that KK doesn’t get a one to one with potential targets however as his encouragement and people skills would be of great persuasion.
23 Ericles // Jun 16, 2008 at 9:13
Would like to see Rob Lee involved in NUFC backroom staff.
24 SydneyToon // Jun 16, 2008 at 10:12
I don’t really agree with the notion that we’re making a necessarily slow start to the transfer market. Sure, we’re not leading the pack but:
1) KK has been on vacation up until this week
2) Most players are actually on vacation presently
3) Few signings have occured to date
4) The Euros are holding up big movements
5) The transfer window is not even open yet
6) We DID make a bid for Modric - and a very sizeable one at that
7) We are selling our fringe players to make room - in the squad and financially - for the new players
Also, I have no issue with KK being supported by the team of ‘Exec Director. Football’ etc - any assistance in negotiating prices, and identifying young talent is very gratefully accepted.
I’m very optimistic that in a month/ 6 weeks we’ll all be feeling less nervous and more optimistic.
25 craig chisholm // Jun 16, 2008 at 10:35
seen the latest crap about us….all negaitve of course……..the wage cap will be 40 grand!! and we are going to sell owen. fingers crossed its just shite. This would explain why we can not get any players though eh. Even that wonder kid from down south is stalling and he is only 15. his club wanted 1 million but we went in with 150 grand. these other teenage whizzs are getting bagged for millions buy arse and manure but we can not even be arsed offering more than 150 grand - how good can this kid be if we are saying thats all he is worth? fcuking joke.
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