Kevin Keegan and a Brief History of the Premiership

There was a time when the premiership was a more egalitarian place. That was back at the beginning when you had title contenders like Leeds and Aston Villa. You didn’t have certain clubs which were obscenely rich, and nobody else able to mount a challenge. I think in the 80s, and even up till the middle of the 90s it was still fairly open, you could have clubs challenging for the premiership.

Coincidently the first Premiership was won by Manchester United, and it was also their first top league title in 26 years. Since then, the centre of gravity for English football has shifted from Liverpool to Man U. In retrospect it was a seismic shift. It used to be Liverpool vs the rest. Now it’s Man U vs the rest.

I would say there were only a handful of real challengers to Man U’s dominance. First was Blackburn Rovers who managed, by a hair’s breath to wrest 1 Premier League title from Man U. Yes they spent what was at that time an obscene amount of money to get that title but it’s not that obscene now. Later on there was Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle who managed to destroy a 12 point lead at Christmas.

Later on these clubs didn’t have the fan support or the Champion’s League money so they faded away.

Later on there were more credible challengers – Arsenal, who were blessed with a manager who was capable of producing miracles on a regular basis, and was able to find world class players without paying top dollar for them. Chelsea, who found a sugar daddy willing to bankroll their way to success every year.

The decision to award 4 places to English clubs was a momentuous one. In a way it created an ogilopoly of 4 big clubs who qualified for the Champion’s League every year. There was Leeds United who wanted to join the club and completely failed to do that. There was Tottenham and Everton who threatened to join the club. But neither of these sides has shown they can play the EPL and the UCL in the same season.

Now Liverpool’s hold on the big 4 is getting tenuous, with Aston Villa, Man City Portsmouth and Everton all threatening to usurp 4th place, although West Ham, Newcastle and Tottenham have shown that having foreign owners is no guarantee that you’ll be challenging for Europe any time soon.

The other thing is that the game has become more difficult to manage. Howard Wilkinson won the old Football division 1, but after he came back to manage Sunderland he guided it to the worst ever finish by any Premier League side. George Graham may have won titles with the “boring boring Arsenal” but in later spells with Leeds or Tottenham he was less successful. Graham Taylor may have gotten the England job on the back of his 2nd place finish with Aston Villa but he wasn’t much use when he returned to the club. Kenny Daglish may have won titles with Liverpool and Blackburn but he wasn’t much use at Newcastle. Howard Kendall may have been one of Everton’s most successful manager in recent times but he wasn’t much good in his subsequent spells.

Which is why I’m worried for Kevin Keegan. Yes, he may have gotten his Newcastle to second in that incredible season, but his later record was not all that impressive: totally out of his depth as England manager, and getting sacked from Man City. I think there is this idea they want to exorcise his ghost by giving him a second spell. In this way, if he succeeds, well and good. But if he fails, then at least no subsequent Newcastle manager will have to deal with the fact that he’s not Kevin Keegan. And after they get it into the fan’s minds that Keegan’s not really the right choice, then I expect they’ll do the same to Shearer. Remember when Bryan Robson was the great manager everybody wanted to play for? Or what they were saying about Roy Keane 6 months ago when he won the Championship?