I Had No Choice But to Walk, Says Bitter Keegan

One of the most protracted, and painful, farewells in football was confirmed last night when Kevin Keegan finally resigned as the manager of Newcastle United. An increasingly acrimonious three-day stand-off between Keegan and Mike Ashley concluded with the club's billionaire owner refusing to be backed into a corner by the former England coach's demands before forcing him to walk out.

A source yesterday revealed that a clause in Keegan's contract made him liable to pay Ashley £2m in compensation if he quit. However, it is thought that with the 57-year-old having a case for constructive dismissal this demand has been waived in exchange for Keegan signing a confidentiality agreement.

Gus Poyet, Tottenham Hotspur's assistant manager and a close ally of Dennis Wise, Newcastle's powerful director of football, was immediately installed as the favorite to succeed "King Kev" but Marcelino García Toral, the Real Zaragoza coach, is much admired by the club's hierarchy and also looks a strong candidate.

Just eight months after returning to St James' Park for his second stint as manager to a hero's welcome, Keegan's tenure ended with a statement issued by the League Managers' Association. "I've been working desperately hard to find a way forward with the directors but sadly that has not proved possible," Keegan said in that bulletin, released shortly before 7pm last night.

"It's my opinion that a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want. It remains my fervent wish to see Newcastle United do well in the future and I feel incredibly sorry for the players, staff and, most importantly, the supporters. I have been left with no choice other than to leave."

That was a clear reference to the breakdown of relations between Keegan and Wise, Newcastle's recruitment supremo. Trouble festered almost from the day, in late January when Wise and his cohort Tony Jimenez were installed at St James' as Ashley implemented a two-tier continental-style managerial system. Wise's brief was transfers and Keegan's coaching but the latter was distressed to find he had virtually no influence on who was bought and sold with the final straw coming on transfer deadline day when Newcastle tried to sell Michael Owen and Joey Barton behind his back.

Furious rows with Wise and Derek Llambias, the club's managing director, followed on Tuesday. It was the beginning of an impasse between a manager resolutely refusing to resign and an owner declining to pay Keegan at least £2m in compensation for dismissing him.

With the latter decamping to the north-west and Ashley cutting short a business trip to the United States, Manchester became the scene of a prolonged final act in which Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the LMA, mediated with Newcastle's board and Keegan's lawyers were briefed for battle. Those lawyers made it clear to Llambias that Keegan wanted to remain as manager but only if he was given full control of transfers and Wise and Jimenez were removed.

When this proposal was rejected in a formal letter from Llambias, it became clear that a compromise was impossible. As negotiations shifted to the financial details of Keegan's departure, the manager yesterday spoke to a senior player and told him he would almost certainly not be returning.

The training ground mood was duly sombre and an agent representing a member of Keegan's squad said: "Agents were informed on Monday that every Newcastle player could be bought so you can imagine that hasn't gone down too well. The players' morale is at rock bottom."

Newcastle's squad, who almost all liked and enjoyed working with Keegan, were angry that no director explained the situation to them. The fans, dismayed by the loss of their beloved "Messiah", were seen throwing season tickets into the Tyne and talked of boycotting the next game at home to Hull a week tomorrow.

As Glenn Roeder, a former manager and captain at St James' Park reflected: "Newcastle United is a tragedy, the club goes from one disaster to another."