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By Mike Collett
LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Kevin Keegan's return to Newcastle United as manager on Wednesday was just as big a shock as his sudden departure from St James' Park 11 years ago.
Back then he was in Newcastle one minute, then turned up in Florida saying he had taken the club as far as he could. It was a decision he later said he regretted.
A few months after his departure, Keegan said: "I don't feel bitter about leaving, but I wish I had handled it better, in a nicer way.
"Looking back, maybe I should have done what I did when I quit the club as a player. Then it was announced on my birthday on February 14 I was retiring at the end of that season.
"I just wish that I had done something like that when I left as manager last time."
Keegan helped transform Newcastle's fortunes, not once but twice, and now he is back for a third go.
When he came as a player towards the end of a glittering career at Liverpool, Hamburg SV, Southampton and England, Newcastle were in the old second division and he helped them win promotion back to the top flight.
He left St James' Park by helicopter from the centre circle, still dressed in his black-and-white kit after his last match for the club in May 1984.
When he came back as manager in 1992 they were heading for the old third division and possible extinction.
Within two years they finished third in the Premier League and with a team that included David Ginola, Les Ferdinand and Peter Beardsley, went close to winning the title in 1995-96 before blowing a 12-point lead over Manchester United who went on to win the title.
His famous TV rant at Alex Ferguson when he blasted "I would love it if we beat them, love it," is now a classic footballing moment, and been shown countless times.
IMPULSIVE SIDE
But that explosion also showed his vulnerability -- and just how impulsive he can be.
He showed that side of his character again when he quit the England job immediately after a World Cup qualifying defeat by Germany in the last match played at the old Wembley Stadium in October 2000.
In many ways Keegan, was a victim at Newcastle of the financial demands made by the businessmen who began to move into English soccer in the 1990s.
But where there were once millionaires running the clubs now there are billionaires and new Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is among the new super-elite.
Money will not be a problem for Keegan, but the expectations at Newcastle are now even greater than they were in the 1990s -- and they still have not won a major honour since the old Inter Cities Fairs Cup in 1969.
Keegan can probably rekindle the spirit and excitement that he created in Newcastle in the 1990s.
But it is likely to be harder to bring them a major trophy this time round and, as the Geordie faithful will not want reminding, he never actually managed it last time.
