Keegan: I Could Have Come Back

Kevin Keegan has spoken of how Liverpool Football Club made him as a footballer and a person - and revealed how the possibility of a sensational Anfield return was once discussed.

Forty years after signing for the club, the player who helped make our No.7 jersey famous has given his most forthright and personal interview ever - and if you're an LFC TV Online subscriber then you can watch the entire 60 minutes before anyone else right now.

Among the revelations from Keegan was an admission that after leaving Anfield in 1977, a clause was inserted into his Hamburg contract giving Liverpool an option to buy him back.

The transfer never happened and instead in 1980 he signed for a Southampton side managed by Lawrie McMenemy.

Keegan explained what happened: "It was an option. I was with Lawrie McMenemy at a charity event the other day and he said he phoned up Peter Robinson, because he wanted me but Liverpool had a clause, but Peter said, 'No, we won't be signing him, definitely, we don't need him.'

"Liverpool had moved on, got different players and partnerships, were just as successful and arguably about to be even more successful.

"In football terms, it's never easy to go back. You've had it happen over the years a couple of times and it's half worked but it's never really the same. My book had been written at Liverpool and it was a nice little book. I had a lot of good fun and a few little downs, which makes a good story.

"Every time I come back, even driving here today, I go past my old digs. You can't take the memories away but it was finished."

Despite firing a century of goals in 323 appearances for Liverpool, Keegan is perhaps associated more with Newcastle these days following his return to St James' Park as manager.

But despite his father being from the north-east, the 60-year-old regards Liverpool as the club to which he owes everything.

"Newcastle and Liverpool are the two," he said. "I played for and managed Newcastle, my father and all his relatives were from up there, so there was a big pull for me in the north-east. But Liverpool made me, not just as a footballer but as a person. The people I met: Shanks, Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan, Ron Yeats. All these people you take something from.

"You think, what makes Emlyn Hughes so special on the football field? Fitness. I want to be fit. What makes Tommy Smith so special? He absolutely loves the club. I'll take a bit of that. Taking bits of those people made me. It was a very influential time for me.

"The fans made me. When they started singing my name! What am I, five foot seven with Cuban heeled boots? But (because of them) I was six foot six."