It was the season from hell as Newcastle United went through four managers and ended up in the Coca-Cola Championship
Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear (centre) watches Charles N'Zogbia (left) train
Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear (centre) watches Charles N'Zogbia (left) train
It started in nightmare fashion with a sensational walk out by Kevin Keegan and ended in complete disaster under the watch of Alan Shearer.
Yes, you've guessed it, this is the story of the gruesome 2008/09 season which ended in relegation at St James' Park for the first time in 20 years. The crazy thing is that even during the intensity of a Majorcan heatwave at a pre-season tournament in the Balearic Isles, Keegan looked like a man who knew what was coming.
The man known to many as the Messiah had taken Newcastle from the cusp of the old Third Division to the brink of the English title in the space of just four years. Along the way, he'd signed Shearer for £15million, and it was during the awkward pre-season in 2008 that the first sign of trouble began to transmit from the Toon camp.
Keegan, as he dabbed himself down from a training session in Palma, was asked if he could see Newcastle making another signing like Shearer. With a stern glance on his face, he simply said: "These are different days now."
And he was right as he tried to go into battle with unproven signings from La Liga such as Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez, Danny Guthrie from Liverpool, and an unknown trial player, Seb Bassong!
Keegan boasted a squad that included Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Obafemi Martins, Damien Duff, Shay Given, and Jose Enrique. But despite some great signs at the end of the previous season, including a 4-1 thumping of Tottenham away from home, Newcastle players looked concerned in what was Mike Ashley's second year in charge.
After being handed a warm enough welcome from fans, he was about to feel the full force of the passionate Toon Army.
The straw that broke the camel's back for Keegan
Newcastle started the season in a decent enough manner with a 1-1 draw at Man United and a narrow win over Bolton Wanderers before getting through to the third round of the League Cup with a win at Coventry. But Keegan would soon be told that Spanish striker Xisco had been signed against his wishes and another unknown in Nacho Gonzalez.
Keegan was told to watch them on YouTube by transfer chief Dennis Wise, but things came to a head and the former England star resigned, sparking a fan revolt. In a later tribunal Keegan, who won £2m in compensation, said: "The tribunal has found the conduct of the club in forcing a player on me against my wishes represented a fundamental breach of my contract of employment. I do not believe that there is any manager in football who could have remained at the club in the light of their conduct.
"I resigned because I was being asked to sanction the signing of a player in order to do a favour for two South American agents. No one at the club had seen the player play and I was asked to sign him on the basis of some clip on YouTube. This is something I was not prepared to be associated with in any way."
Ashley tried to woo Keegan back in the immediate aftermath but the damage had been done. Ashley stayed away from the next game against Hull, but his managing director, Derek Llambias, watched on as a fan waving a "Cockney Mafia out" banner walked past him.
Newcastle were in trouble and the truth is Llambias and Ashley didn't have a clue how to deal with it.
Players thought Kevin Keegan replacement was a prank
After Keegan had gone, Chris Hughton was put in caretaker charge but Ashley had other ideas!
As Llambias read out a prepared statement to the players at the club's Benton training ground, a senior Newcastle star in Given shouted: "Somebody is taking the **** out of us in here."
It would confirm that Joe Kinnear had replaced Keegan on an interim basis and that the club was in talks with a consortium that "could" bring Keegan back. Within days Kinnear had made the back pages of the papers with a foul-mouthed rant in which he attacked journalists with a series of verbal volleys at the training ground.
The reason? Because it was accurately reported that Kinnear had given his players a day off on his first day in charge!
Kinnear had threatened journalists with a ban and said: "If you do it again, I am telling you you can f*** off and go to another ground."
Kinnear then claimed that Newcastle owner Ashley had spoken to an American consortium who aimed to bring back Keegan AND Shearer to the club.
But he went one step further on Halloween in 2008 when he said November 22 would be "D-day" for the takeover and Ashley selling the club.
Six days later, it was announced that Kinnear would be taking charge until the end of the season with the board at the time feeling the former Wimbledon boss was capable of keeping the club up.
The controversial sale of Shay Given with the Ireland stopper the first of many stars to depart under Ashley
Kinnear told the world Shay Given was not for sale - then sold him 29 days later. The goalkeeper was unhappy about life at Newcastle and stated in his book what every fan knew: "I never believed Kinnear was the right fit.
"No disrespect to Joe but he’d been out of football a long, long time."
After Given's big-money move to Man City went through Kinnear left the goalie fuming with this line in a Press conference: "We bent over backwards to try and keep him at Newcastle United and offered him a longer contract to stay at the club.
"He has been with Newcastle United for a long time and has been a great servant but he felt the time was right to move on and so, realistically, we had no choice but to reluctantly agree to allow him to make this move."
Given later stated in his book: "The sad thing was I’d placed serious, long-term roots down in Newcastle, my children were in school there and I would easily and happily have stayed forever."
Charles N'Zogbia Press conference gaffe
Newcastle had just lost to Man City 2-1 at Eastlands when Kinnear was asked about the Frenchman's possible exit in the transfer window.
Kinnear called N'Zogbia "Insomnia" in a packed Press conference with the winger then stating he'd never play for the club again. N'Zogbia's agent Franck Peslerbe said: "It is clear what he meant.
"If he meant it as a joke, it is a good joke for Kinnear but to Charles, it is not."
Kinnear responded by saying: "Sadly, this just smacks of a desperate attempt to engineer a move away from Newcastle United." And so another talented star quit the club and signed for Wigan.
Kinnear's stint as boss lasted just 18 matches before he had to step down due to heart problems with the club embroiled in a relegation battle in the Premier League.
Alan Shearer arrives with eight games left to try to save the doomed Magpies
The good news of Shearer's arrival was it meant that Wise resigned after a disastrous spell and some questionable signings. But Shearer did not realise how bad things were in the dressing room and even though he led Newcastle to a victory over Middlesbrough with three games to spare, United stars could not finish the job.
Newcastle were robbed after a Viduka goal was chalked off by the officials in the last home game against Fulham and the clash ended in a 1-0 loss. It took things to the final game of the season at Aston Villa in a game which also ended in a single goal defeat as Duff poked the ball past Steve Harper to send Newcastle down.
A distraught Shearer would say to the media afterwards: "I’m raw, angry, frustrated, disappointed and I am hurting – you can put all those words together and that still doesn’t sum it up.
"The simple fact is that over 38 games, Newcastle United have not been good enough and deserve to go down - and it hurts for me to say that.
"I've said to them in the dressing room that you can make all the excuses you want. I wasn't good enough, Mike Ashley wasn't good enough and Chris Hughton, Joe Kinnear and Kevin Keegan before that weren't good enough. But it's what is in the dressing room that has got us relegated. It has been a problem all season."
Shearer had a plan to get Newcastle back up but never managed the club again after Ashley's ego was dented by a suggestion he should get rid of Llambias. It would take United fans until 2021 to see the back of Ashley.
During a talk-in at Dunston in between the horrendous Ashley years, Keegan had told fans: "Trust me, one day you will get your club back and it will be everything you wanted it to be"
Keegan would be proved right, but only after years of blood, sweat, and tears on Tyneside.