Keegan returns to Newcastle

Kevin Keegan has been appointed as manager of Newcastle United for the second time in his career, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.

Keegan (56), who played for the club in the 1980s and managed them for five years in the 1990s, succeeds Sam Allardyce, who left the club last week.

The club confirmed the appointment, which will be hugely popular with their fans, in a statement on their website.

“Kevin Keegan is returning to Newcastle United as manager,” it said.

Keegan, a former England coach, was first appointed manager in 1992 and remained in the job until 1997.

He took the club close to the Premier League title in 1996, but they lost a 12-point lead over Manchester United in the closing weeks of the season and eventually finished runners-up.

The club’s initial choice to succeed Allardyce was Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who turned the job down on Saturday.

Since then a number of candidates were mooted, including Keegan, who did not rule himself out of the running on Monday.

Keegan has been out of football management since leaving Manchester City in 2005.—Reuters