Keegan set to meet City power brokers

MANCHESTER CITY boss Kevin Keegan is ready for a top-level meeting with the club's power brokers after the collapse of the Robbie Fowler deal.

Keegan believes one of the reasons the £7 million move ended up dead in the water was that negotiations dragged on too long. Fowler agreed personal terms and passed a medical after a fee was settled with Leeds following two weeks of on-off discussions. City's medical team, however, expressed their concern at the lack of matches he had played since a hip operation.

Chairman David Bernstein tried to alter the deal in dialogue with his Leeds counterpart Peter Ridsdale after Keegan had conducted the initial negotiations. It is believed the new deal was on a pay-per-play basis and when relayed to the 27-year-old striker through his adviser George Scott he changed his mind and decided to stay in Yorkshire. Fowler phoned Keegan and told him that he had "wrong vibes" about the move.

It was a body blow to the City boss, who said: "The first thing we have to do as a club is sit down after the Newcastle game and just make sure we can finish off deals when we get them down the road. I think there are things we could have done better.

"I am disappointed. I think everybody in this deal and I mean everybody will look at things we could have done better. "There's no doubt about that because it has been going on for two weeks."At the end of it, the player didn't get the right vibes. Maybe if we'd been a bit quicker maybe he wouldn't have had so much time to think. He would have been here."His adviser was on holiday, that wasn't helpful, but he came back on Wednesday, he's done everything correctly. We can't be responsible for what other people did. But we are certainly responsible for what we did. There has got be some meetings. But all this talk of divisions there has been some lively debate but divisions is too strong a word.

"I don't know the conversation that happened between my chairman and Peter Ridsdale, I wasn't party to that.

"I am not annoyed about that. My chairman was trying to do his job properly and he got on with it." Keegan said the medical team had the right to express their disquiet about the terms of the transfer.

"This deal involved in excess of £10 million, whichever way you looked at it, depending on appearances, so that is an awful lot of money," said the City boss. "So we have to do the medicals right, we have to let the medical people have an opinion.

Fowler was seen as the man to take City upwards and onwards in the next four years. "I saw Robbie Fowler as a big asset to this club for the next three-and-a-half years at least," said Keegan. "I think the fans were excited about it, which is always nice. It is for them we are here.

He said he had got the wrong vibes. Quite frankly if a player gets the wrong vibes you don't really want him at your club."

But Keegan added: "I don't feel I have got to go out and sign someone else just for the sake of it. We are in a decent situation at this club."