Kevin Keegan

Kevin Keegan feels his break from football has proven to be to the benefit of the current Newcastle United squad.

Prior to returning to St James' Park for a second spell as boss in January, Keegan had not been involved in management since leaving Manchester City in March 2005.

He had also not attended a live match during his exile, but believes it enabled him to be fully focused on the players at Newcastle when he was named Sam Allardyce's replacement.

"What I didn't know was what players I had today," Keegan said.

"I knew the names, but not what character they'd got and I knew all the top teams, but it was the other ones we were going to be playing.

"I didn't know all the players, I'll be honest with you and I was honest enough to say that at the time. I hadn't watched a live game for three years. To me, that's not necessarily a big deal.

"I know now, having been here three months, that half the targets I'd like are the same people I'd have liked when I was out of the game, looking at them and thinking 'wow, if I was a manager now, that's the sort of player you'd like at your club'.

"It's not as big a thing as the media made it out to be. And then, when things weren't going well, they exaggerated it.

"But in reality, in some ways, it focused me on what we had here, what we had to work with.

"The transfer deadline passed without me signing a player, whilst I would like to have fetched Jonathan Woodgate in and that's well documented, I wasn't looking to fetch four or five in and say I needed to change everything.

"I was looking forward to working with the players here. And that's what we did."