Kevin Keegan: "Geremi had always got a smile on his face. He is fantastic around the club.
"The feeling I got when I came in was he had had a bit of a tough time here and when he came back, he might be okay around the squad because he is a good man, but he just might not be able to hold down a place.
"But from the day he came back from the African Nations Cup and trained with us, I thought, 'wow!'.
"He smiles, the players respect him, he doesn't give the ball away foolishly.
"He is a clever player and I have been unbelievably impressed with him.
"He is another one of my leaders around the place. I have got a few - you need a few at a football club and he is certainly one of them.
"When you are talking about the players we have in our side, we have a lot of experience there.
"You talk about Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Obafemi Martins - he is young, but he has played in Italy, he has played for his country, he has scored goals in Italy, he has scored goals for his country, and he has scored great goals in the Premier League.
"You then add to that the experience of Nicky Butt, Geremi, Abdoulaye Faye and Habib Beye, and you think we have got the experience and we have got the ability among us."