Ok this in a touch of nostalgia for the oldies on here. There was a time when a current England international (and European Footballer of the Year) actually JOINED The Saints!. Yes, that was 34 years ago today. Can you remember where you were when you heard the news? http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/footbal...ture/otd-southampton-sign-keegan_166402.html?
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the kitchen making some toast and listening to the radio. When the sports news came on and it said "European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan..." somehow I knew what the rest of the sentence was going to be. A truly amazing moment.
I was just coming in from work and there had been a buzz around that Saints had signed someone really famous. Lawrie was sweet talking a fair few older stars back then, but then someone said Kevin Keegan, and I simply didn't believe it. So I got home and my jaw dropped when I read it off Ceefax. I can remember just standing there with my mouth open, literally. My brother came in and said, What..? What's the matter..? [remember that none of my family are the slightest bit interested in football] And I said, Saints have signed Kevin Keegan..! And he said, F***..! Really..? And that was how big a signing KK was. People with not the slightest interest in football knew who he was. You said Micky Channon or Alan Ball, for example, and many non-football people might say who..? They were big football stars, but Kevin Keegan was the biggest football star in Europe, maybe in the World at that time. He was also thoroughly well known outside of football. In terms of celebrity and significance, he's by far the biggest player ever to play for Southampton FC. Yeah. I remember where I was.
Remember it very clearly as a friend phoned me as soon as the news broke. You have to hand it to Laurie Mac his policy of bringing nippers through to play with older established has-been's [excluding KK] and managing to squeeze a few more years out of them was pretty exciting stuff. Remember Bally, Mills, Shilts, Case, Rodrigues, Osgood, Charlie George, Dave Watson etc. etc.
The only meaningful comparison for 2014 would be if we signed Ronaldo or Messi. The ridiculous thing about that statement is that it is absolutely true.
I acme home from work and thought my Dad was winding me up. Remember watching a recording of the announcement on the local news that evening and still not believing it. Great days.
I was at work and got a call from my brother who worked with someone ITK (I think he was an ex-Saints youth team player). He told me that we were about to announce something big. This was before we could all log on to t'internet of course, but a little later it was confirmed by someone else at work who'd heard it on the car radio -happy days! Don't think we'll ever see an individual signing to beat that in terms of impact - not unless we're keeping the double swoop for Ronaldo and Messi very quiet! Mind you, great as it was, there have been many other players over the years who arrived with much less ceremony and delivered much, much more. You just can never tell!
Yes, it was a jaw-dropping moment and all the more so as there was none of the fancy corporate display boards so ubiquitous these days. If my memory serves the press were all sat on office chairs and were as surprised as we were as KK walked in to sit behind a Formica table. I could be wrong about this of course because memory often doesn't serve at all well!
As I remember it, he walked out from behind some fairly wobbly looking screens, certainly with no logos in sight anywhere.
Oh wow we should definitely do more of these retro transfer things. Like what the BBC did with their retro live text commentary from the old World Cups.
I've told this story before on here, but I'll tell it again. Lawrie tells of the week before Keegan's signing and how kept his s*** together when he knew it was on. I recall he later apologised to Hampshire Police on TV for going through a red light because he was concentrating on the transfer so hard. But the night before the announcement he'd gone out to dinner in Beaulieu with a few friends, among them the author Leslie Thomas. One guest was a sports jounalist who inevitably kept nudging Lawrie when Lawrie told him he was going to make an announcement the next day. At the end of the evening they were all getting into their cars when the journo asked, Come on Lawrie, give me a clue. McMenemy winked at him and said, KK..! In bed that night the journo suddenly sat up and said to his wife. I know who it is..! It's Kevin Keelan (the Norwich City goal keeper). His imagination couldn't stretch to Keegan.
We had a friendly at Bournemouth and I remember strolling round their manor singing the "Super Kev" song with some of the boys
I was sat at school in the day room watching john cravens news round with my school mates when they announced we had signed him. I was chuffed but a few of my non-saints fans were absolutely guttered.
