UPFRONT
In the autumn of 1996, Kevin Keegan celebrated a 5-0 walloping of Manchester United, putting Newcastle top of the Premier League for a second season running. By the autumn of 1997, he’d joined a club sat 11th in the third tier.
Twenty-five years ago this month, Keegan moved to Fulham as their chief operating officer – an incongruous job title for a man who’d always seemed reluctant to operate anything as complicated as a back four, never mind an entire office.
Having fallen agonisingly short of the title at Newcastle in 1995-96, he quit as manager in January 1997 – a slump in form had followed that famous victory over old rival Alex Ferguson, even if his last two league games at the helm were actually a 7-1 home shellacking of Tottenham and a 3-0 win against Leeds.
Few expected his next job to be in the Second Division. Fulham had been taken over by Mohamed Al Fayed that summer, weeks after promotion from the fourth tier. In late August, the Egyptian lost son Dodi in the car crash that also killed Princess Diana – he poured his soul into football in dealing with the loss. Promotion-winning manager Micky Adams was sacked in late September, with Keegan recruited, working above gaffer Ray Wilkins and new chief scout Arthur Cox. Adams swiftly pitched up at Swansea, then left after 13 days following a dispute over transfer funds.
No such issues for Keegan at Fulham, where Al Fayed – one of English football’s first foreign owners – put up an astonishing £10m. In came Chris Coleman for £2.1m, Paul
