Kevin Keegan picked up the phone in February 1992 and listened as Newcastle United’s new owner, Sir John Hall, uttered a sentence that would change the club’s history. “There’s only two people who can save Newcastle United, and we’re talking on the telephone now”.
Newcastle were staring down the barrel of relegation to the third tier of English football, a level they had never dropped to in their history. Sir John had relieved Ossie Ardiles of his duties after a 4-3 home defeat to Charlton, proceeded by a 5-2 defeat away at Oxford.
Ardiles was a big name, but he had got the blend of youth and experience wrong during his first full season as Newcastle boss. He gambled on youth, and it had backfired.
Kevin Keegan was the saviour, but Lee Clark was still in mourning
Ardiles was popular among players and press, but Newcastle were in a bad way. They turned to the immensely popular and charismatic Keegan who quickly galvanised the whole city, saved the club from the third tier and within three seasons created one of the most exciting teams English football has ever seen.
News of his arrival in 1992 reignited spirits around the place, but talented teenager Lee Clark initially struggled to find the same enthusiasm.
“Kevin left me out of his first game, against Bristol City at St James’ Park, as he’d told me a couple of days earlier that while he’d heard a lot of good things about me, my head wasn’t in the right place”, explains Clark speaking to FourFourTwo all these years later.
“It was a fair comment. I had enjoyed an excellent relationship with Ossie and it hit me hard when he was sacked because I felt partially responsible for him losing his job.
“I found it difficult to differentiate between being a boyhood fan of the club and being a player. Having watched him [Keegan] from the terraces, part of me was as excited as everyone else about Keegan coming back to Newcastle, but if I’m honest, disappointment at Ossie going was my overriding emotion.
“For the first few months of Kevin’s reign, I was in and out of the side. But, from the summer on, I began to realise how charismatic he was, and the team and I went from strength to strength.”
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Clark played 58 times the following season, scoring ten goals in all competitions. Newcastle won their first 11 games and secured promotion to the Premier League with two games to spare.
One of Keegan’s first ever signings was Andy Cole with whom Clark became best friends with off the pitch. Clark would leave the club for arch rivals Sunderland in 1997, but did finish his career back at St. James’ Park in 2005/06.
Coincidentally the same season Alan Shearer retired. While Clark played numerous times with both, he feels Cole’s contribution to the club is sometimes under appreciated.
“Look, Alan Shearer is rightly regarded as the greatest striker of the modern era, but I do think Coley’s time at Newcastle gets overlooked. Some fans don’t acknowledge his contribution because he moved to Manchester United, our biggest rivals back then, but his stats with us were just phenomenal – almost Erling Haaland-esque.”
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