BBC pundit Garth Crooks has tipped Kevin Keegan to become the next Chairman of the Premier League – feeling he is a ‘man of the people’ who still has a lot to give in English football after his recent absence from the game.
As you will have noticed, Keegan’s name and face has made a return recently following the release of his new book ‘My Life in Football’, with him appearing on TV for several interviews and holding a night at The Sage to reminisce of his career in the game and address the current situation at Newcastle United.
His passion is infectious and his reemergence has been a breath of fresh air, with Garth Crooks believing he should be ‘at the heart of the game’ and put himself forward to be the new Chairman of the Premier League:
“How good was it to hear from one of the greatest players England has ever produced this week?
“The interview with Kevin Keegan on Saturday’s edition of Football Focus could have, in my view, lasted an hour.
“The two-time European Footballer of the Year spoke with the same passion and enthusiasm for the game that made him one of the greatest competitors I have ever seen on a football field. In fact I can’t remember seeing a footballer with more courage.
“It was that courage that led Keegan to take the England job and that same nerve that saw him lead his beloved Newcastle United to the top of the Premier League table in January 1996.
“ It was also the same man who, as a player, made it crystal clear that he would stand squarely behind the PFA in the event of any attempt by the Football League to renege on their contract with the players’ association.
“How fitting then, as he promotes his biography, My Life in Football, that the one matter that troubles him more than any other is the ticketing prices Premier League clubs are charging fans in this period of unprecedented wealth in the sport.
“His almost desperate concern that businessmen appear to be running the game, at the expense of the man on the street whose presence brings the game alive, sticks in his throat.
“Keegan was always a man of the people, and should be at the heart of the game in some capacity to quell the game’s commercial excesses.
“The new chairman of the Premier League perhaps?”
I think Garth is spot on, Many feel like the game is gone and that money is taking over, so a man of the people who truly ‘gets’ the fans could be a perfect remedy to restore people’s faith in football – but whether this has any chance of happening is a different matter.
Could you see King Kev doing this?
It won’t be with the toon.Not under Ashley,that’s for sure
graham coleman(Quote)