by Michael Norman

Created on: May 17, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

"Will Sam Allardyce succeed with Newcastle United?" - I guess this is the 64 million dollar question. Personally, I think you can only answer this question once you have derived 'what is success?' for a Newcastle United fan.

If we can ignore minor successes such as winning the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup and the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, then statistically, Newcastle United were last successful in 1955 when they defeated Manchester City 3-1 in the English F.A. Cup under the guidance of Doug Livingstone. But to many Newcastle United fans, or Geordies, as they are affectionately known, Newcastle were very successful during the Kevin Keegan era.

First of all, bringing Keegan out of the football wilderness to manage a club he represented so well as a player, was regarded as an instant success at the time. King Kevin took charge of the Magpies on February 5th 1992, with the club at the wrong end of the old 2nd division. I remember Sir John Hall had not long became Chairman of the club and his initial thoughts were 'what have I done here'. Amazingly, Newcastle avoided dropping into the 3rd division by winning their last 2 league games against Portsmouth and Leicester City - and what happened over the next few years was nothing short of miraculous.

Keegan guided Newcastle to the old Division One title in the 1992-93 season with an exciting brand of attacking football. In their very first season in the Premiership the finished way above expectations by finishing third - again, many Geordie fans would regard this as resounding success. Keegan's Magpies were dubbed 'The Entertainers' and with the talented David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla donnig the black and white shirts, they went very close to winning the Premier League after holding a 12 point advantage at one stage of the season. They eventually lost out to Manchester United, but that season will long stay in the memory of not only the Newcastle faithful, but to many football fans worldwide. One of the games that season was the 4-3 defeat to Liverpool, which is still regarded today as one of the games of the century. But all in all, Newcastle United, their Chairman, Manager and fans regarded that season as another success.

It was unfortunate that Newcastle failed to win a major trophy in Keegan's reign, as I am sure they would have been a major force in English football for many years if they had done so. Kevin Keegan quit Newcastle United back on January 8th 1997 and amazingly Sam Allardyce is their 6th permanent manager

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