Keegan Never Shone Brighter Than During His Six Golden Seasons At Liverpool

EVEN BEFORE Kevin Keegan scored his first goal in a Liverpool shirt in the 12^th minute of the 1971-72 season, the Kop had fallen in love with the 20-year-old signing from Scunthorpe United. It took just a dozen ticks of the clock to get a sense of what Keegan was all about.

Had Anfield ever seen energy like Keegan’s? Even a 10-year-old like me sitting in the Main Stand could sense we were watching the start of something special. Keegan buzzed. He was everywhere. Nottingham Forest, the opponents on that sunny day 55 years ago, were bamboozled. The 51,427 spectators were bedazzled.

This was no marquee signing. The man who would lead the second Shankly revolution and Liverpool to their first European Cup cost a mere £33,000. I remember my father raising his eyebrows when the team was read out over the tannoy. It was a big leap from the fourth division to the top flight. After the 3-1 victory over Forest, any scepticism had evaporated. “That Keegan,” my dad said, “is the best player in the league.” He was right.

In an age of wall-to-wall media, when instant heroes come and go with depressing regularity, it’s easy to be cynical about stories like this, especially as Keegan does not appear to be held in particularly high regard by Liverpool fans. Only this month he was voted No 14 in a poll of the 100 greatest players on the club website. That’s one place above Luis Suarez, a man who won a single League Cup winner’s medal during his time at Anfield and whose most newsworthy action as a Liverpool player involved racially abusing an opponent and bringing the club into disrepute.

Keegan, by contrast, kick-started a period of dominance that would last for almost two decades. His medal haul was massive: three titles, an FA Cup, a European Cup and two Uefa Cups. That’s just in his six years at Anfield. But more than that, Keegan became the face of Liverpool – and England. He was a superstar.

The group of kids that gathered outside Anfield during the school holidays to speak to the players and ask for autographs made Keegan the No 1 target. He was always lovely and desperate not to disappoint anyone. When he was in a hurry, he’d always claim he’d be back in 10 minutes and he’d sign everyone’s books. He never came back but it struck me that he hated to see our sad faces. Keegan always liked to leave us with a smile.

And, boy, did he make us smile. He regularly ran himself into the ground for the team. Actually, that’s not true. He ran the opposition into the ground. He would pop up everywhere on the pitch but this all-action approach was coupled with magnificent skill. Keegan could dribble, his passing range was excellent, his touch exquisite and he was fearless. His partnership with John Toshack is legendary, though his ability to connect with Steve Heighway is often overlooked.

What position did he play? That’s an interesting question. There was no single role that could contain Keegan. He popped up where he could do the most damage. Shankly, and later Bob Paisley, had to be flexible in their approach to get the best out of him. The tactics were simple: let Kevin off the leash.

There are, perhaps, a number of reasons why Keegan is sometimes overlooked in Liverpool’s pantheon of players. He had the great misfortune to be replaced by Kenny Dalglish when the England icon left to join Hamburg in 1977. The Scot took just seven minutes to score on his debut away to Middlesbrough and such were Dalglish’s range of skills that Keegan was instantly forgotten. A new infatuation was in town and in the process of establishing a relationship that would never be broken.

If not for Dalglish and the success he inspired, I suspect Keegan would rank much more highly in the minds of Liverpool fans. Even if there was five years of distance between the pair, there would be greater fondness for Keegan. As it was, the Kop moved on with unseemly haste.

As an aside, Dalglish invertedly upstaged Keegan to the end. In June, shortly after Keegan announced he was suffering from cancer, the Scot mistakenly posted his own diagnosis on social media when attempting to have a private conversation. At least where Liverpool are concerned, Dalglish always took the spotlight away from Keegan.

There is another factor, too. Can anyone be an iconic figure for two clubs? Newcastle United claimed Keegan as their own. When it comes to club football, King Kev is instantly associated with Newcastle, King Kenny with Liverpool.

Yet the modern Kopite often underestimates the impact Keegan had on Anfield. He sparked Liverpool’s domination and bestrode the 1970s as a giant of the game. No one, not even Dalglish, had a more transformative effect on the team.

When he ran on to the pitch to make his debut that day in 1971, Shankly’s 1960s heyday was long gone. Plenty of observers doubted the Scot’s ability to bring trophies to the club after a five-year drought. Keegan changed the landscape.

There was much more to Kevin Keegan than his time at Liverpool but he never shone brighter than in those golden six seasons on Merseyside. Those of us who saw him will be for ever grateful for the experience. Sleep well Kevin. When we think of you, you’ll be in red with a number seven on your back. And we’ll swoon like we did that long-lost August afternoon more than half a lifetime ago.