Draw a Line Under the 'alan Issue', Ashley Tells Keegan

Kevin Keegan has been urged to draw a line under the "Alan issue" by Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner. Ashley is believed to have given his new manager carte blanche to choose his back room team, even if it were to include Alan Shearer, the club's former captain, but hopes the matter will be swiftly resolved.

Earlier this week it became apparent that Shearer and Keegan have not spoken for around a year but the former Newcastle midfielder Rob Lee, a close friend of Shearer's, has hinted they could work together. "I don't think Alan would ever consider being a No2 to anyone except Kenny Dalglish and Kevin [Keegan]," he said yesterday. "But I don't know if it will happen."

After lobbying for the manager's job at Newcastle, Shearer has announced his willingness to help the new regime in any way possible and was almost certainly mentioned as Keegan and Chris Mort, his chairman, spent hours locked together in conversation at the club's training ground yesterday.

Apart from discussing the back room team they drew up a list of transfer targets which are understood to include the Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe as well as Manchester United's Wes Brown.

Another name being bandied around is that of Chris Coleman, who resigned as coach of Real Sociedad on Wednesday. He had been understood to be the favorite to become Keegan's assistant but sources close to Coleman said he regarded himself as a manager rather than an assistant. And he would not want to be separated from Steve Kean, his deputy at Real Sociedad.

Lee Clark is another coach being linked with a Keegan reunion. Now Glenn Roeder's assistant at Norwich City, Clark is a former Newcastle and Fulham midfielder who worked with Keegan at both clubs. Roeder said yesterday: "Any move for Lee will be very strongly resisted."

Other contenders for the boot room are John Carver, a prominent Newcastle coach under Ruud Gullit and Sir Bobby Robson, and Peter Beardsley, who is already employed in a junior capacity at St James' Park but may well be promoted. The future of Sam Allardyce's key assistants Nigel Pearson and Steve Round seem uncertain but Terry McDermott appears certain to stay on.

Keegan, who will face the media this afternoon, yesterday gave a radio interview in which he suggested Newcastle could be poised to end their long wait for a trophy: "As long as they [the fans] are realistic and a little bit patient I think we can try again to help them have dreams again and we could possibly win something."

"I wouldn't say it [returning] was a big decision. I love this club so from that point of view, it was easy," added Keegan who agreed to return after spending an hour with Ashley and Mort late on Tuesday. "They convinced me it was right to come back and that maybe there is a bit of unfinished business here. People outside the region don't understand it. They don't understand this place but the Geordies and I do."