Kevin Keegan

AN ARTICLE BY SuperSub

There’ll be a lot of tributes made to Kevin Keegan (King Kev – Mighty Mouse) after his sad loss today, so I thought I’d do something different & just run through a few brief memories & thoughts of the man. I’ll make no attempt to go over his whole career, not even just his Liverpool one, as there’s no doubt books been written, if you want to read about that. Everyone has their own & can add those in the comment section.

When Liverpool (rather unluckily) lost the 1971 FA Cup final, that was the 6th consecutive season in which we hadn’t won a single trophy. In fact, at the end of the 1960’s – beginning of the 70’s, we weren’t even the best team in this city. We didn’t know it then, but all that was about to change & a huge factor in that change would be a young man who was pictured sat near some dustbins outside Anfield, a day or so before that cup final was played.  Kevin Keegan was his name & he’d just cost us £35,000 from Scunthorpe.  We knew that Shanks rated him, so that was good enough for us, but how good could he actually be, if he was signed from bloody Scunthorpe…?    We were about to find out.

KK was on £35 a week at Scunthorpe & he was delighted when Liverpool offered him a starting wage of £45pw.  His Dad however, though he was worth more & encouraged him to ask for another £5pw.  Now bear in mind how bloody scary Shanks could be, but fair play to the lad for having the guts to face up to him & ask for £50pw.   After a few minutes, Shanks finally agreed to pay the extra £5 & KK walked out extremely proud of himself.   It’s said though that, after KK walked out, Shanks turned to Bob Paisley & with a sigh of relief said, “Phew.  Thank god for that Bob, I’d have given him £60 if he’d have asked”.  

Our first game that season was at home to Forest & in the 12th minute, this busy little player from Scunthorpe had scored his 1st Liverpool goal in front of a rapturous Kop.  A star was born.  A lot of the chat after the game, was about this young lad who’d been buzzing around the pitch all afternoon, like a wasp at a picnic.  Non stop graft from start to finish.  We were impressed & we hadn’t seen anything yet.

There’s far too many memories to list here, but here’s a few.

His partnership with Toshack was an absolute joy to behold & they gave us so many wonderful memories. And also some strange ones too, like the Batman/Robin pose at Anfield.  

His fight with Bremner at the 1974 Charity Shield showed that he wasn’t someone to be messed with & he’d already caught a thumping hook from Giles.  Dirty, dirty Leeds.

Keegan was a grafter.  He admitted himself that he was never the most skilful player on the pitch, but he trained hard (think Milner) & he left nothing on the pitch whatsoever. And we loved him for that.

When he announced he was leaving at the end of the 1976/77 season, it hurt.  Players didn’t leave Liverpool.  Well, not while they could still play a decent level of football, but KK was.  How bloody dare he…!!!

I was lucky & privileged enough to be a regular in the Kop at that time & out of all the years I’ve supported this great football club, 76/77 was probably the greatest season of all.  Keegan was magnificent from start to finish & his performance in the 1977 European Cup final was (& still is for me) the greatest individual performance from a Liverpool player in a single game.  In his final game for the reds, he ran Gladbach ragged & gave Bertie Vogts an absolute nightmare, eventually winning the penalty off him, that Phil Neale scored to clinch the 3-1 victory.  And many people will tell you, Vogts was no slouch, that’s for sure.

In Keegan’s day, there was hardly any regular football on tv outside of MOTD & it do believe that it’s difficult to appreciate just how good Kevin actually was, as the highlights available today, don’t really even come close to doing him justice.  Some of his great performances (74 FA cup final, 77 EC final etc), are obviously captured in full, but he was like that week in, week out. We adored him

It was awful to watch him walk away at the end of that season & many of us had grave concerns for our future, coz how could you replace Kevin Keegan…?  Once again, we were about to find out. 

For me, Keegan was the catalyst.  I firmly believe that if he hadn’t arrived here when he did, we’d have been successful again, but nowhere near the level of what we actually achieved. I’ve always loved Kevin Keegan, both as a player & a human being & the news today has, in all honesty, knocked me for six.  I think we all knew it was coming, after his ‘stage four’ announcement the other week, but it’s still a shock.   It was the one final battle that even he couldn’t win.

Kevin Keegan was, for me, one of the most honest people in the world of professional football. Whatever his role & wherever he was, he always gave 100% & when he thought he couldn’t do something, he’d hold up his hands & say so.  All in all, he wasn’t only a great footballer, he was a decent human being & the world needs more like him at the moment, not less.  A sad, sad loss.

Rest in peace Kevin lad & give Shanks & the rest of our departed friends our best regards.