Keegan: Ashley ´knows little about football´

Former Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan says the club will never go anywhere while owner Mike Ashley is still in charge.

Keegan is revered on Tyneside for a five-year stint in charge of Newcastle from 1992 to 1997, during which he transformed the side into one of England’s best and won the club plenty of admirers with their brand of attacking football.

The former Liverpool midfielder returned to St. James Park for an eight-month spell in charge in 2008 before resigning due to differences with Ashley, who he said can never take the English Premier League club forward.

“The club can never go anywhere under Mike Ashley and (managing director) Derek Llambias – it can’t go anywhere, I promise you that,” Keegan said in his column on ESPNsoccernet.

“You will never get stability when you have Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias running the club. Ashley has made no secret that he wants to sell Newcastle, and the best day will come when someone buys it from him and runs Newcastle like that club should be run.”

Keegan had sympathy for former manager Chris Hughton, who was surprisingly sacked on Monday by the board.

“I do not understand the decision to get rid of Chris,” he said.

“When a man buys a club like Mike Ashley did, and he knows as little about football as he does, he is likely to make these sort of mistakes and these sort of judgements, and still think he is doing okay.”

“When you get the fans saying it is the wrong decision, when you get the players saying it is wrong and when you even get the press saying it is wrong, it tells you, unsurprisingly, that the decision is the wrong one.”

Keegan believes that Ashley wanted rid of Hughton a while ago but says the decision – which came as a shock to many – does not surprise him.

“It does appear they wanted to remove Chris for a while though,” he said.

“Their minds were made up a long time ago, but results like the 6-0 win over Aston Villa, the 5-1 win against Sunderland and the 1-0 victory at Arsenal made it awkward for them to do so.”

“They waited for an opportune time and the moment presented itself when a couple of results didn’t go very well. It would surprise a lot of people, but it does not surprise me.”

The former England and Manchester City boss has backed new boss Alan Pardew, but says his lack of Premier League experience could be telling.

“He (Pardew) is not vastly experienced,” Keegan wrote. “He has managed for 17 months in the Premier League. But Alan’s a good lad. I know him well, he is very dedicated and he works very hard.”