Keegan looks to wing-man Duff

A LITTLE over an hour before learning his services were no longer required, Sam Allardyce spent his last press conference as manager of Newcastle United waxing lyrical about a player he had barely been able to call upon. That player was Damien Duff.

The soon-to-be-departed Big Sam outlined, with rarely-seen animation, the relish with which he looked forward to finally being able to work with a player that injury, and a career-threatening one at that, had largely denied him the services of.

Later that afternoon, the Newcastle owner Mike Ashley intervened to ensure those wishes would go unfulfilled. A week later and it became apparent that Kevin Keegan would be the man to be in a position to finally reap the benefits of a player who has, so far, failed to rise above the mediocrity he’s been surrounded by during 18 months of stagnation at St James’ Park.

Allardyce and his high-profile successor would at first appear to have little in common when it comes to their views on the game, yet when it comes to the midfield player, clearly the same hymn-sheet is in use.

The man who in his first spell in charge on Tyneside used David Ginola as the medium through which to express his attacking principles has a similar role mapped out for Duff. On the evidence of his first game in charge, the dour 0-0 with Bolton Wanderers, it is a long-term one, for Newcastle to muscle their way back into a top four.

“Wingers have always been very important,” Keegan enthused with six words that will be music to Duff’s ears, in his continued attempts to bury the mental and physical scars from the ankle and foot injury sustained at the end of last season which, although at first apparently innocuous came close to forcing the 28-year-old into early retirement and denied Allardyce access to his undoubted talents for all but the final few weeks of an eight-month reign.

Keegan added: “Players who can go past people change matches. The secret is wingers learning to do the other stuff, to get more out of them in an inventive way, and Damien does that.” Having made eight Newcastle appearances since his return last month, an international comeback beckons in February with the much-heralded arrival of the Brazilians in Dublin, almost 11 months after winning the most recent of his 66 Republic of Ireland caps.

The Newcastle manager was left looking a little sheepish when, after the Bolton stalemate in a trait more associated with Robson, he was momentarily unable to recall the name of Duff’s counterpart on the right-wing, James Milner. “He won’t thank me for that,” Keegan conceded.

There appears little danger of a similar embarrassment befalling Duff, a player he was clearly already au fait with when returning for his third spell at the club last week.

Keegan is confident he can restore Duff to the heights that persuaded Chelsea to part with £17million (€22.8m) for the then-Blackburn Rovers player in 2003, a figure Newcastle paid barely a third of to secure his services in the summer of 2006.

The former England manager knows the raw materials are there to work with in his quest to provide regular ammunition for Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins and he added: “When you talk to Damien the desire is there, so that’s the only thing you need. He’s got the ability, he’s just had injuries and he’s now much more experienced.

“As a young player he basically went out and played and now he’s thinking about it a bit more, because of circumstances he can get better and improve here.”

During Keegan’s previous stint in charge, Ginola could, from time to time, be found in the club’s training complex with his feet up enjoying a snack and smoking a cheeky cigarette while his team-mates were outside putting in the hard yards to prepare for the next game. When asked if he was injured, the Frenchman would answer in the negative, and reveal the manager had simply given him the day off.

The quantum leap in player fitness levels in the ensuing decade mean it’s unlikely Duff will be afforded such luxuries. Keegan added: “I like my teams to move the ball about pretty quickly, and Damien’s still not been long back from what was a very serious injury.

“He’ll get fitter and certainly I don’t think fans have seen him at his very best.” For Newcastle supporters, such a prospect is just one of the intriguing sub-plots set to unfold under Keegan. If it does, just spare a thought for Sam Allardyce.