Newcastle: 6 Shocking Revelations About Kevin Keegan's Departure

6. Newcastle Almost Signed Sami Hyypia

Keegan announced during his Q & A session that he had identified two targets that he wanted to sign during the summer transfer window in 2008 that ultimately ended with him leaving the club, and that the club fudged both attempted acquisitions. The bigger of the two is somewhat known (and will be returned to shortly), but it is less well known that Keegan wanted to sign Sami Hyypia, who was at the tail-end of his Liverpool career, and was available for £1.25m. Having worked out the details of his contract demands - considerably less than the top earners at Newcastle according to Keegan - the manager went to the board and told them exactly what was needed to sign him. But four hours later, Hyypia rang Keegan to confirm that the club had offered just £500k, and been turned down, telling Keegan that they had tried and failed. Officially, Newcastle almost signed the imposing defender on three separate occasions, with the first coming in 1995 when the 22 year old turned up on Tyneside for a trial under Kevin Keegan, who passed on the Finn and sent him back to MyPa. The second time relates to the time Keegan referred to when he was at the club, and then at the end of the transfer window in February 2009, Joe Kinnear admitted they had had an offer rebuffed for the centre-half again.