Keegan would welcome Shearer return
Friday, 18 January 2008 16:27Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan said he 'would love' to bring Alan Shearer back to the club.
Keegan made a sensational return to St James' Park on Wednesday for a second spell as boss, after Sam Allardyce left the club a week previously.
Shearer - the club's record goalscorer who retired in 2006 - had been suggested as a possible manager, but Keegan's appointment left Geordie fans dreaming of a double-team of Magpies legends, with Shearer as an assistant.
And Keegan would certainly welcome him with open arms - if Shearer wants to come.
'If there is a role for Alan which he wants, I will definitely speak to him at some stage,' he told a press conference this afternoon.
'I would love to have him back, and we'll definitely talk.'
Keegan added: 'I haven't spoke to Alan yet, I've concentrated fully on Saturday's match (against Bolton).
'I've walked into a training ground I've never seen, meeting a lot of the staff for the first time.'
Keegan insisted he was the 'best qualified' man to take charge of the strife-torn Magpies.
'I know the club. I'm not saying the other managers (who were linked to the job) didn't, but I know it as a player, a manager, I know what it's like in terms of what the fans want," he said.
'I don't have to learn those things.
'This is a very special club, and that's what people outside this area don't understand.
'I think I'm the best qualified person to come and do this job.'
Keegan claimed it had been difficult to watch on as his successors in the Newcastle hot seat failed to build on his good work between 1992 and 1997.
'Every time the job came up, there was a little bit of envy there. That's how I felt every time this job came up,' he said.
'I didn't leave (in 1997) because I wanted to, it was because of circumstances. I didn't think the club was going where I wanted it to.'
And Keegan is confident that, with the help of owner Mike Ashley's millions, he can help Newcastle break into the top four once again.
'If there's one thing that impressed me with Mike Ashley, it's not just that the finance would be provided, he was saying 'I want to win something'.
'That might sound a tough challenge but it is possible to win something here, for them to break into the top four. Not overnight.
'But we did it once before.'
