The Daily Express’s football writer Harry Harris seems to have played his cards right by predicting Kevin Keegan’s unexpected move to Newscastle United yesterday.
Most newspapers yesterday had speculated that either much-loved former United player Alan Shearer or former Liverpool manager Gerard Houlier as the new boss. The Sun yesterday quoted Shearer saying “I could do it”, but accepted that the club didn’t want him at the time.
The Daily Mirror and The Independent touted World- Cup-winning French captain Didier Deschamps and Gianfranco Zolo as a possible new management team.
But Harris in The Express was correct in saying that United chairman Mike Ashley was “intrigued by Keegan’s refusal to rule himself out” and appears to be the only reporter to have got the story right.
Some sports writers appear to have heard the story on BBC Radio 5Live, including Times football writer Henry Winter who said as much on the station last night.
Sports desks may now have mixed feelings about hinting so strongly that Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes was in the frame earlier this week.
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