sport

MAGPIES MUDDLE WAS INEVITABLE

Keegan - future in doubt.

Newcastle's capacity for self-destruction is so enduring that it has to be admired. So too for that matter is Kevin Keegan's.

Mixed together... it is suffice to say that any scientists still probing the mysteries of spontaneous human combustion could do worse than start their latest investigations at St James' Park.

"It will never last," said the cynics when their latest marriage was unveiled way, way back in January, but even they (and I include myself among their number) have been bewildered by the speed with which this latest love affair has hit the rocks.

Perhaps the warning signs were there when billionaire club owner Mike Ashley decided that the best move to help Keegan turn Newcastle around was to appoint Dennis Wise in an overseer's role.

This was the Dennis Wise famously described by Sir Alex Ferguson as a man capable of starting a fight in an empty room, though Callum Davidson's fractured cheekbone in 2002 attested to the fact that the room doesn't have to be empty either.

Wise was appointed as Newcastle's executive director (football) on January 29 this year. Again the cynics were out in force: executive director (relegation fight) was the predominant view.

There is no satisfaction in being proved right - okay, I admit it, there is. Plenty. But that doesn't stop one feeling hugely sorry for those fans who have supported Newcastle through thick and thin.

Glenn Roeder summed it up beautifully today: "The club is a tragedy and it goes from one disaster to another. There's no stability, they go from one manager to another and the people who suffer the most are the most important people, the supporters.

"When they talk about Newcastle being a great club, it's only great for one reason - because it has great supporters."

Roeder is spot-on. But for a club to become great it must have great supporters. Newcastle had those, and the club had money, and they had power.

They could have been great, but they blew it.

Sir John Hall took them to the fringes of greatness but first Freddy Shepherd and now Ashley have demolished that base.

Forget about starting a fight in an empty room - how about starting one in a half-empty stadium because great as they are, the Newcastle fans will soon start to vote with their feet.

*****

Keegan, meanwhile, did not help his cause by his bizarre decision to play Joey Barton towards the end of Newcastle's thumping at Arsenal last weekend.

Barton's contribution - a few days before going in front of the FA's disciplinary beaks - was to launch into a challenge on Samir Nasri that was a whisker away from being dangerous and then smirk at him afterwards.

Keegan's rant at Nasri afterwards for clipping Barton's heels was little short of ludicrous - it was fairly innocuous retribution, and the Frenchman was booked for his troubles.

*****

A bad couple of results for England over the next week and two decent ones for Scotland will see Fabio Capello's side fall behind George Burley's in FIFA's world rankings.

Asked about the significance of that, Burley said yesterday: "I'm sure if you asked the punters 'do you want to get to the World Cup finals or be above England in the rankings' they'd choose the World Cup finals," before adding: "I hope."

Don't be too sure about that, George.