Remembering Kevin Keegan: Part Two

Well, actually, it doesn't go very well, and when I was researching this, I realized that, yeah, the, the stories filtering back from Germany at the time were...

And, and you have to remember this at an age before the internet, and there was very little coverage of, um, German news and the Bundesliga.

You did think, "Oh, this has gone all horribly wrong for Kevin Keegan," and, and we'll just go into details.

There's, there's one little detail though that [laughs] I think we should mention that before he goes to Germany, and, and I, I wonder whether it contributes to, um, his teammates' frosty reception of him, is the famous bubble perm.

[laughs] We're gonna talk about hairstyles because I think it's a fascinating facet of Keegan in that he would disappear for long periods and was quite introverted clearly in, in some ways, could be a bit of a recluse.

And yet he's also got this [laughs] part of his personality which loves being with people and loves drawing attention to himself.

And he's the first footballer to go and get...

I don't know where the bubble perm comes from, but it is, uh, just to describe it, if you haven't seen it, it's just a massive...

You've got obviously your hair curled, and it just made your hair about four times as big as it would otherwise be.

Yeah.

So curly mullets had been kind of a fairly big thing, particularly in that, that Liverpool side that, uh, yeah, obviously Tony McDermott, um, uh, yeah, had, had, had huge hair.

Um, Sweeney had hadn't quite arrived by then, but obviously, yeah, he would have that as well.

But yeah, Keegan's the first one to [laughs] kind of enhance his natural curls, shall we say.

It, it, it, it is laughable.

In, in fact, so, it's so laughable that when he walks into the café meeting his wife, Jean, after he's had it done for the first time, she just bursts into laughter and can't talk for 15 minutes, [laughs] and, um, and I wrote...

But he does have the last laugh because basically he is a fashion icon.

[laughs] Every footballer starts having this perm just because Keegan has, which it, we laugh at it, but it also shows you the measure of his influence, a bit like Beckham.

I mean, he, he had genuine sty- style, argue, influence in that people would follow what he did.

But, but I think the, the, the other thing that's significant, um, obviously this, th- th- this very extroverted side amidst a man who in other ways is quite introverted, that, that he was really happy to maybe be a bit silly, draw attention to himself, be out there.

Frankly, it's not gonna go down brilliantly well with his Hamburg teammates.

[laughs] He turns up at Hamburg.

Um, I don't think it's helped that the business manager, I think who's effectively the president in, in the structure of, um, Hamburg's ownership at the time, Dr. Peter Krohn, has...

Obviously, he's delighted having made this signing from England.

Um, as you pointed out at the end of the last episode, Keegan has quadrupled his salary going to Hamburg, which gives you an idea of the relative economics.

Well, two, two things.

Well, actually, it doesn't go very well, and when I was researching this, I realized that, yeah, the, the stories filtering back from Germany at the time were...

And, and you have to remember this at an age before the internet, and there was very little coverage of, um, German news and the Bundesliga.

You did think, "Oh, this has gone all horribly wrong for Kevin Keegan," and, and we'll just go into details.

There's, there's one little detail though that [laughs] I think we should mention that before he goes to Germany, and, and I, I wonder whether it contributes to, um, his teammates' frosty reception of him, is the famous bubble perm.

[laughs] We're gonna talk about hairstyles because I think it's a fascinating facet of Keegan in that he would disappear for long periods and was quite introverted clearly in, in some ways, could be a bit of a recluse.

And yet he's also got this [laughs] part of his personality which loves being with people and loves drawing attention to himself.

And he's the first footballer to go and get...

I don't know where the bubble perm comes from, but it is, uh, just to describe it, if you haven't seen it, it's just a massive...

You've got obviously your hair curled, and it just made your hair about four times as big as it would otherwise be.

Yeah.

So curly mullets had been kind of a fairly big thing, particularly in that, that Liverpool side that, uh, yeah, obviously Tony McDermott, um, uh, yeah, had, had, had huge hair.

Um, Sweeney had hadn't quite arrived by then, but obviously, yeah, he would have that as well.

But yeah, Keegan's the first one to [laughs] kind of enhance his natural curls, shall we say.

It, it, it, it is laughable.

In, in fact, so, it's so laughable that when he walks into the café meeting his wife, Jean, after he's had it done for the first time, she just bursts into laughter and can't talk for 15 minutes, [laughs] and, um, and I wrote...

But he does have the last laugh because basically he is a fashion icon.

[laughs] Every footballer starts having this perm just because Keegan has, which it, we laugh at it, but it also shows you the measure of his influence, a bit like Beckham.

I mean, he, he had genuine sty- style, argue, influence in that people would follow what he did.

But, but I think the, the, the other thing that's significant, um, obviously this, th- th- this very extroverted side amidst a man who in other ways is quite introverted, that, that he was really happy to maybe be a bit silly, draw attention to himself, be out there.

Frankly, it's not gonna go down brilliantly well with his Hamburg teammates.

[laughs] He turns up at Hamburg.

Um, I don't think it's helped that the business manager, I think who's effectively the president in, in the structure of, um, Hamburg's ownership at the time, Dr. Peter Krohn, has...

Obviously, he's delighted having made this signing from England.

Um, as you pointed out at the end of the last episode, Keegan has quadrupled his salary going to Hamburg, which gives you an idea of the relative economics.

Well, two, two things.