Latest news with #KevinKeegan
South China Morning Post
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
FPL: Under pressure like Kevin Keegan, ‘I would love it' if I beat my rivals
Never did I think that a Fantasy Premier League season could jeopardise my professional career, but here we are. The Post's mini-league, despite my utter dominance throughout, has somehow come down to the final day, with just five points between my side, Various Artists, and the team in second. As the Post's resident FPL 'expert', how can I walk back into the office with any shred of dignity if I somehow throw away the league? My editor has even hinted that I will be sent on a post-season FPL tour should I fail to bring back silverware, something I suspect might be a metaphor for more serious ramifications. Right now, I feel like Kevin Keegan after his infamous 'I will love it if we beat them' rant. I have been top of the league for as long as I can remember, but my run-in – much like that of the ill-fated 1996 Newcastle United side – has been nothing if not average: in the previous Gameweek, I scored 58 points, 62 the week before that, and a shocking 38 in Gameweek 35. My closest rival closed the gap after an impressive run, racking up 202 points in three weeks.
Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Couple engaged in front of Jurgen Klopp and given away by Bruce Grobbelaar
The biggest winner in Liverpool won't be lifting the trophy after the final game on Sunday, nor will he be on the bus for the parade. Yet he will be at Anfield for the match and he will be streetside for the parade. Eight years ago, neither seemed remotely possible to him. Dirk Coeck is a 56-year-old Belgian who fell in love with Liverpool when he first saw Kevin Keegan. 'It was his movement and his technical ability,' he says, and that was him hooked. Much of his latter years as a fan were spent with three friends, all of them bikers, all of them sharing the same Liverpool affliction. Coeck remembers well the last game they went to together: Newcastle United away in 2017,
The Independent
17-05-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Eddie Howe: Carabao Cup win may be better than coming second in Premier League
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe says winning the Carabao Cup might be even more special than finishing second in the Premier League. The Magpies, who beat Liverpool at Wembley in March to claim their first piece of domestic silverware since 1955, head into Sunday's penultimate fixture of the league campaign at Arsenal knowing victory at the Emirates Stadium would leave them in with a chance of clinching the runners-up spot. That is something they have not managed since 1997, when Kenny Dalglish repeated Kevin Keegan's feat of 12 months earlier. However, asked if that would represent a bigger achievement than winning a cup, head coach Howe said: 'It's a difficult one to answer and it's difficult to compare as well. 'Winning silverware, when I first arrived at the football club, was a dream and an ambition at that stage. 'It felt like a long way away, so to actually win silverware and the reaction that generated will never, never leave me. I don't think you can compare the two things.' That day at Wembley represented a glorious culmination of the work Howe, his staff and their players had done since arriving on Tyneside in November 2021, when they inherited a team battling relegation. Three-and-a-half years on, they will run out at the Emirates with a first trophy banked and three wins over the Gunners already this season, an illustration of the progress they have made, in particular when they have come up against the traditional big six. Howe said: 'I don't think we would have won the Carabao Cup if we hadn't have had those wins beforehand. The fact we'd beaten other clubs, not in a one-off situation, but a regular fashion in the last couple of years, helps you go into those games with a belief that you can win it again. 'We would like to continue to build that, but those games are very difficult, home or away. But we have full internationals and players who have done it at various other levels and competitions. We have the inner belief that we can win anywhere now. 'We know we have to be at our best to do that. If you go back to Manchester City away, we weren't at our best and were really disappointed with ourselves. 'The players understand that now – if we drop, we'll get beaten; if we play to our maximum, we can win.'
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
SV Hamburg clinch Bundesliga return after seven years in 2nd tier
Hamburg fans storm the pitch to celebrate the team's promotion to the 1st Bundesliga, after the German second Bundesliga soccer match between Hamburger SV and SSV Ulm 1846 at Volkspark stadium. Marcus Brandt/dpa Former European champions SV Hamburg stormed back into the Bundesliga after seven agonising years in the second division with an emphatic 6-1 triumph over now relegated Ulm. Ulm led from Tom Gaal in the seventh minute but their fate was effectively sealed when after Ludovit Reis had levelled in the 10th they failed to convert a penalty from Selim Telalovic in the 36th. Advertisement Hamburg pounced immediately to lead 3-1 at the half from Ransford Königsdörffer in the 42nd and Davie Selke in stoppage time. A bizarre own goal from Philipp Strompf four minutes after the restart ended all doubts, Königsdorffer added a classy second in the 62nd before Daniel Elfadli wrapped up matters late on in front of an ecstatic 57,000-strong crowd. Hamburg won three Bundesliga titles, the German Cup, the European Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup in their heydays in the late 1970s and first half of the 1980s wit5h a team including Kevin Keegan, Felix Magath and Manfred Kaltz. But in 2018 they became the last founding member of the Bundesliga in 1963 to be relegated. They failed six times to return into the top flight, finishing fourth on four occasions and third twice before losing play-off ties. Advertisement Part of it was down to their "April curse" or "promotion jitters" in the form of late collapses. It happened again when they managed just one point from the three final April games, but other teams in a tight promotion race also faltered and Hamburg got back on winning tracks last weekend with a 4-0 in Darmstadt. The team of young coach Melvin Polzin, who took over from Steffen Baumgart late last year, secured promotion with one game to spare. They are one point ahead of Cologne who also close to instant promotion back, with Elversberg four points back in the play-off spot in their bid to become the first club in 32 years from the small south-western state of Saarland to reach the top flight.
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Newcastle to consult with fans on ‘refining and reviving' club badge
Newcastle United are to consult with their supporters on 'refining and reviving' their current club crest. The club have launched a consultation process with fans via an independently run survey aimed at seeking advice on how they can modernise their badge. After initial discussions with Newcastle's Fan Advisory Board (FAB), the club have accepted that there is little hunger for a major overhaul of the crest's design, which has been in use and largely unchanged since 1988. Advertisement It is perhaps most synonymous — at least until earlier this season, when the club finally ended their long wait for a meaningful trophy — with Kevin Keegan's Entertainers team of the mid 1990s and it is based on the city's coat of arms, featuring the castle and seahorses which pay tribute to the city's status as a seaport. 'This isn't about walking away from our past,' the club said in an official statement on Friday. 'It's about carrying it forward with pride. The crest is part of our story. It's on our shirts and inked in our skin. It deserves thoughtful evolution — shaped by the voices of the people who love it … Based on what we've heard, updates to the current club crest should be minimal and therefore 'Refine & Revive ' is our recommended approach.' At issue is the fine detail of the club's current design. 'It was created in a different era,' the club said. 'Its intricate design doesn't always translate well in today's digital world. And it's difficult to reproduce it clearly and consistently. As football and the world changes, so too must the symbol that unites us.' Initially, Newcastle season ticket holders and members will be given until May 16 to respond to a survey about what should be retained or updated from the current badge, the results of which will be collected by Savanta and then passed on to the club. The FAB have then recommended that Newcastle's wider fanbase should be given a choice of options in the second stage of the consultation process. No potential changes to the badge will be made in time for the start of next season. As someone who is old enough to remember previous incarnations of Newcastle's club crest, I'm perhaps not as emotionally wedded to the current version as some might be. Don't get me wrong, this is a classic badge, one which celebrates the club's connection to the city and which stretches back into Newcastle's proud history, but other designs have been just as beautiful. Advertisement What about the magpie standing splendid beneath the arc of a downturned capital letter C, which props up a curled NUF? That was gorgeous, something I'll forever associate with Paul Gascoigne, the first player who persuaded me that football could be poetic (as well as brutal). Those simple, sensuous curves – which were on the front of Newcastle kits from 1983-88 – were ahead of their time; think about Juventus and the decision they took in 2017 to strip their badge back to their first initial. I wouldn't have minded a comeback for that design. The magpie makes sense for Newcastle, the club – more so than the seahorses on the city crest, which are a nod to the city being a seaport – because that is their nickname. It also featured prominently on a club badge from 1976-83, standing in front of the Castle Keep and with the River Tyne in the foreground. I'm pleased – and relieved – that Newcastle are consulting so heavily and sensitively with their supporters on 'refining' their current crest and that they accept the link to the city is so important, but was there an argument to be more adventurous now that their modern identity has changed? After lifting the Carabao Cup, they are no longer the perennial losers. The magpies are rampant. By nature, I'm a traditionalist, but losing was one tradition I was happy to let go of.
