sport

KEEGAN DEMANDS WISE'S REMOVAL - REPORTS

Kevin Keegan is reported to have told Newcastle United Mike Ashley that Dennis Wise must be removed as the club's director of football if he is to stay on as manager.

Keegan's acrimonious relationship with Wise is understood to have been the central theme to the two days of in-fighting that has engulfed St James' Park since transfer deadline day.

In his oddly-titled position of executive director (football), Wise, along with Tony Jimenez, the vice president (player recruitment), has the final say on transfer activity, with a frustrated Keegan apparently having little or no influence over the coming and goings. With both Jiminez and Wise based in London, Keegan is literally as well as metaphorically far removed from the club's movements in the transfer market.

Keegan was angered to learn on Monday night that the club were attempting to sell Joey Barton and was further enraged by their reputed response that every member of the playing staff - including Michael Owen - was effectively up for sale.

While Newcastle remain adamant that Keegan has since neither been sacked nor resigned, his position is precarious and it looks likely Ashley will now have to choose between him and Wise. The outcome of the decision is by no means certain. While Keegan may have the unequivocal backing of the club's supporters, Wise is close to Ashley and it was the Newcastle owner's decision to put the former Leeds manager in charge of transfers shortly after Keegan's appointment in January.

According to The Daily Mail, Keegan's legal advisors have sent a 'strongly-worded letter' to Ashley that insists that he must have:

'Control of all first-team affairs including full knowledge of player arrivals and departures.

'Control of first-team contracts, after James Milner was allowed to join Aston Villa when Keegan wanted him to stay.

'The removal of executive director (football) Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez, vice-president (player recruitment).'

That Keegan's demands were issued through his lawyers will fuel the suspicion that, unless he is given total control over transfer activity, he will attempt to sue the club for constructive dismissal. It has previously been reported that, were he to be sacked, Keegan would be entitled to an £8m pay-off. Conversely, he would have to pay the club £1m in the event of his resignation. Given the debts run up by Keegan's Soccer Circus programme, that remains an unlikely scenario.

Ashley is said to be shocked and hurt by the reaction of the club's fans to the fiasco, with a vocal element outside St James' Park again yesterday calling for him to stand down, and he also faces the growing threat of player mutiny unless Keegan can be cajoled into staying. Michael Owen is expected to lead a delegation of players in demanding answers from Ashley and the club's board.