Newcastle CAN Attract Th Big Names!

Last updated : 08 February 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor

Keegan: "You start by building up a trust with the people who provide the finance that you can find these players, you can find them at the right price and that they are willing to come here.

"You build up. It is easy to get players to a club once it is flying in the right direction.

"They want to come. They see the atmosphere here. I can remember Alan Shearer saying, 'I just want to get on some of those crosses from David Ginola and Keith Gillespie'.

"I can remember him saying that, that's what interested Alan - and 'Can I have the number nine shirt?'.

"It was quite simple in the end. It was the biggest deal this club had ever done, but it was very simple because the guy wanted to come and we were a club he turned Manchester United down for at that time, which was incredible, really.

"But the one big pull we had there with Alan was that, of course, he was a Geordie, and that was the thing that decided it in the end.

"It was the heart as opposed to the brain at the time. I am not being unkind to Alan, but most people would have chosen Manchester United, but he was a Geordie."