Sixteen years ago this month Arsenal beat Newcastle, then the next day Man Utd beat Tottenham to take them clear above the Geordies at the top of the table, which soon led to Keegan’s infamous “I would love it, LOVE IT, if we beat them” breakdown.

For no other reason than that, here are my top 10 favourite Kevin Keegan quotes:

Sayings of the new(castle) messiah – Chapter 1, verses 1-10

• “You get bunches of players like you do bananas, though that is a bad comparison.”
• “They compare Steve McManaman to Steve Heighway and he’s nothing like him, but I can see why – it’s because he’s a bit different.”
• “Argentina are the second best team in the world and there is no higher praise that that.”
• “One of his strengths is not heading.”
• “Even though two and two might look like four, it could be three or five.”
• “People will say that was typical City, which really annoys me. But that’s typical City I suppose.”
• “What disappointed me was that we didn’t play with any passion. I’m not disappointed, you know, I’m just disappointed.”
• “The tide is very much in our court now.”
• “If I had a blank piece of paper there’d be five names on it.”
• “It’s understandable that people are keeping one eye on the pot and another up the chimney.”