January 15 – Dalglish in at the Toon

ANOTHER new day, another new dawn at Newcastle. Today in 1997 the Geordie nation was anointing their newest messiah as Kenny Dalglish took over at the club following one of Kevin Keegan’s many departures.

Keegan had left St James’ ten days earlier, as the January blues proved to be too much for him, despite a 7-1 win over Spurs on Boxing Day 1996. The club looked to another former Liverpool legend to take over as he plumped for Kenny Dalglish, whom he hoped would complete a hat-trick of title-winning clubs, following his successes at Liverpool and Blackburn.

Since winning the Premiership with Blackburn in 1995, King Kenny had spent a year upstairs at Ewood Park as Rovers’ Director of Football before leaving the club.

The vacancy at Newcastle was enough to tempt him back into the game, and why wouldn’t it? He inherited a strong squad from Keegan, currently lying in fourth place in the Premiership and was amongst some of the self-confessed most passionate fans in the country.

Dalglish guided the Toon to a second place finish which secured the clubs’ first ever venture into the Champions League. Whilst the Toon Army were convinced they were on their way to a Premier League and European Cup double, lady luck had other ideas.

A long-term injury to Alan Shearer sustained in a pre-season friendly at Goodison Park meant that Newcastle’s favourite son only turned out 17 times, scoring twice that season as the Magpies slumped to a thirteenth-place finish. Dalglish did guide the club to a memorable 3-2 win over Barcelona and to the FA Cup Final, but their hopes of silverware were dashed by Arsenal as they lost 2-0 at Wembley.

A poor start to the next season was enough for Fat Freddie Shepherd to wield the axe, sacking the Scotsman just 20 months after hiring him. Ruud Gullit was installed as manager and Dalglish next pitched up at Celtic as manager John Barnes’ head coach. Once that went pear-shaped Dalglish was put in charge for half a season, winning the Scottish League Cup before leaving and has yet to return to football management.

See some footage of Dalglish in his pomp in the pitch below and see what delightful mess another of Keegan’s predecessors was getting himself into today here.