I'm the main man but I can work with Wise, says Keegan

In black and white, the words may sound more forceful and pointed than the reality of their delivery. Kevin Keegan might have been expected to be onthe back foot and defensive, but unless he was acting, his demean-our was calm and relaxed. "I'm the main man," he said, "in the areas that I need to be."

A fortnight after his appointment, a combination of results, events and speculation has led to suggestions that this might not be the case. But as he discussed the arrival of Dennis Wise at Newcastle United in a director of football-style role, Keegan was almost casual inhis dismissal of the potentialfor conflict among two football men who may hold differing views on the vital subject ofplayer recruitment.

"I know everyone is looking for problems in there because of the personalities, but the set-up is actually quite simple," Keegan said. "It just has to be somebody I can work with, and I can work with Dennis. We know what the rules are, that's the key.

"The worst thing is for someone to be fetched in and you have no say. I don't mind them going and doing the deal, in some ways that's a relief for a manager. But you have to get the combination right, a manager needs to have a player in, ask him why he wants to come. I'm very strong on that.

"If you're asking me: am I running the whole club and the Academy? Then no, and if you're asking me if I want to do that, then the answer's no. But I want to help make that work."

Being "the main man" is one reason why Alan Shearer has finally said no. Shearer is not sure about the wisdom of the Wise appointment either. But Newcastle's decision is made. It is micro and macro policy, and the one informs the other. The caricature of Keegan, already getting an airing again, is that attention to detail is not his forte at a time when it needs to be.

It was said that his team talk before Arsenal last Saturday amounted to little more than "pass the ball better than them". In public at least, Keegan was irritated rather than angered at the portrayal. "It's not worthy of comment. We are a professional football club and there's more than just myself involved in preparing the players.

"We all play a part. We look at the opposition, but what I don't believe in, what I never have believed in, is showing half an hour of Arsenal to players who already know. Probably our talk lasted for 15 to 20 minutes, and if you can't get your message across then... and we'd already worked here on things.

"Please don't let people think this is an amateur club. We're just not getting the results that others are, and the results justifyanything. We do all that, every player today has a heart monitor.We have all the numbers."

The number worrying Newcastle as they prepare for Middlesbrough's visit this afternoon is when a first goal will be scored under Keegan. A goal, a home win, would bring some relief after another week of scrutiny. Otherwise next Saturday's trip to Aston Villa will begin to loom.

When he speaks of "spirit" and "atmosphere" it would be easy to perpetuate the Keegan stereotype, yet those are the same words Roy Keane used about Sunderland. Keane questioned the whereabouts of Sunderland's soul, and Keegan appears to be asking the same of Newcastle. A decade of changing managers and players erodes the continuity that makes a club feel like one. When Keegan says the word, it seems to have more than one syllable. Compared to when he first came as manager in 1992, he said: "It's a bigger ship now but there's more crew on board. There's more expertise. But we have to build the club again, we haven't quite got a club here. I just mean a club, a spirit.My office was at St James' last time, this is more detached. We knew the girls in the club shop, the laundry room.

"There was something good about that and something bad about that. There is something good about this and something bad about this. How do you get people to feel like they are coming into a club? It starts with the team and how they play. It always has to be team-led. Then people will want to come."

That should make the job of Dennis Wise easier.