Keegan’s Newcastle warning for Pardew
KEVIN Keegan has told Alan Pardew not to make plans for the £35m Newcastle raised in selling Andy Carroll to Liverpool.
Keegan’s second stint as Magpies manager ended acrimoniously in 2008 after a breakdown in relations with the club’s owner Mike Ashley and his team of executives over player recruitment.
The former England boss was unhappy at not having the final say on transfer targets, and also complained of not being given sufficient funds to satisfy Newcastle’s ambitions.
Pardew is the latest incumbent at St James’s Park – controversially installed after Chris Hughton’s sacking – and Keegan has warned he does not expect Carroll’s transfer fee to be readily available.
“I saw an interview with Alan Pardew where he said he hoped to get some of the £35m, and I thought ‘Alan, you ain’t going to get any of that’,” he said.
Even if Pardew is permitted to spend, Keegan believes life in the transfer market will not now be easy for the club.
He likens the situation to when Newcastle sold James Milner to Aston Villa during his reign, a situation which he believes was poorly handled and left him a tough job securing good value reinforcements.
“I think £35million for Andy Carroll...if I’d been manager, I’d have taken it,” he said.
“But how can you spend it on the last day of the transfer window?
“My big argument was that we were selling James Milner for a lot of money – probably above the value we put on him – and I said, ‘Please don’t sell him before we get someone in’.
“The reason I didn’t want them to put that out and to hold on a little longer was so I could get a good value signing. It’s business; it’s a sensible way to do it.
“If you sell Milner for £11m then they say, ‘If he’s worth £11m, our guy must be worth £9m.”
Prijem 
