Football Food For Thought / Mike Norman / 07 August 2008 /

"Mystical" Mike Norman tells us about the day he bumped into Kevin Keegan down the bookies and considers how the likes of Eriksson and McClaren coped with the different challenges of managing a Premiership club and England. And how will former Brazil and Portugal manager Scolari do?

During his first spell as manager of Newcastle United, I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Keegan one afternoon in a grotty betting shop on the outskirts of Stockton-on-Tees. I remember the conversation well, more so because he was an absolute gentleman and nothing like the cretin I had imagined whilst listening to his co-commentaries on ITV.

Back then Keegan had a huge reputation. He was loved by Liverpool fans, worshiped by the Geordies, and generally liked by the rest of the country - except by Middlesbrough and Sunderland fans of course. However, being the fickle git I can be, I had no hesitation in approaching King Kev for a chat. There wasn't anyone else in the betting shop (apart from a young female cashier who wouldn't have known any different if it were Elvis who had just entered the building) so I took my chance at speaking to a successful Premiership manager, someone touted as a future England manager.

I'm so glad I did, because after some dodgy tips and a lecture about gelding a racehorse, Keegan gave me an insight into football that I will never forget.

He told me how exciting it was to wake up, knowing he had to go and watch the silky skills of Peter Beardsley and David Ginola on the training pitch, and the professionalism of players like Les Ferdinand and Robert Lee in the dressing room. He told me how he loved preparing for matches, that it was like a game of chess as he knew everything about the opposition, but working out what moves they would make was the challenge. And he told me about the magical feeling he felt when everything went to plan on the St James Park pitch.

Of course, Keegan could have been telling me a story that he knew people wanted to hear, reciting something that he'd told a million times or perhaps rewarding me with an uplifting story for being the only mug that day not to have spent his dole money on the first race. But somehow I sensed he was genuine. I felt his enthusiasm and passion, and now with hindsight I can understand why he walks away when he loses the desire.

Regrettably I never asked Keegan about whether he would like to become the England manager, but I have a feeling he would have told me he didn't fancy it. He did eventually take the job as we know, but it all ended with his frank admission that he wasn't good enough to do it justice.

As people like Keegan, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren found to their cost, being a manager of a national side is light years away from being a club manager. The concept is the same - win games, win trophies and be successful - but actually doing it is very different.

You don't get the day-to-day interaction with your players when you're a national football manager. You can't strengthen your squad by spending £20m on a midfielder, and unlike the Premiership (where you know everything about every club and every player), you haven't the foggiest who Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev is when you are shown a clip of him speaking on Kazakhstan TV promising to score the goals that will defeat your team.

But perhaps the hardest part of being a national team manager is being thrust into the spotlight, and in most cases, not being liked. The last three England managers were unpopular choices in the eyes of many, and for Eriksson and McClaren they got little respite from the media and fans. Fabio Capello will no doubt know all this, and he will be doing his utmost to prove that successful club managers can become successful national managers - England are [13.5] to win the 2010 World Cup.

Another man with the chance to become successful at both levels is Luiz Felipe Scolari, someone who has moved in a different direction to Capello by joining Chelsea from Portugal (and previously Brazil). He has many years experience of managing club sides in his native Brazil, but how much that will help him in England remains to be seen.

Never before will he have had so much money to spend, dealt with the expectation of an ambitious chairman, or had to endure the (already sampled) mind games of his fellow managers. Managing a Premiership club is different to managing a national football team alright, and 'Big Phil' is about to find out just how different. Chelsea can be backed at [2.9] for the title, and at [7.4] to win that elusive Champions League trophy.

As for Kevin, I never did get to thank him for that chat. Now that he is back at Newcastle he might visit the same betting shop again sometime (adjacent to the Horse & Jockey pub if you're reading). A few quid on the Geordies to finish top six ([7.2]) might get the beer money - but then again I'm a Boro fan so stuff that!

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