Kevin Keegan will start his worldwide search for new recruits this week insisting nobody will join Newcastle without his say-so. As the manager laughed off suggestions he will make a £15million offer for Barcelona's former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry, Keegan revealed he and football director Dennis Wise have met and discussed summer targets.
Both men have drawn up their hit lists, with Keegan naming three players for each position, even though he expects to sign a maximum of five players.
Wise has identified players from Europe and
South America after weeks scouring the globe with fellow director Tony Jimenez.
But while the pair's new partnership will be put to the test over the coming months, Keegan insists he will have the final say on who owner Mike Ashley buys, saying: "Dennis and Tony are not there to say: 'We've got to sign this player'.
"They're there to say: 'You should go and look at this player'? and that's how it's working.
"They've already put names forward but, until we see them, they won't come into this football club. If we think like Dennis and Tony do when we see them, we'd love to have them at Newcastle.
"If they bring players in and they're not my players I wouldn't be managing this football club.
"Dennis and I talk a lot. We had a meeting two weeks ago, took our list in and they put theirs down. They have a massive database of all parts of Europe and South America.
"I'm less keen on South American players coming into this country, that doesn't mean we won't get any but it's a big move for them.
"I would prefer to sign players with Premier League experience. I think there is probably a balance between the two.
"As far as their list goes, we'll be flying off over the next three or four weeks looking at the players we don't know. We know their names but there are one or two on the list from Dennis that I haven't seen play.
"We're going to work together. We've got no reason not to. Nothing that Dennis is doing at this club is in any way detrimental to me doing my job.
"We're all looking at the same players and, if we're competing with the top four, I wouldn't be confident because they can offer more than we can in terms of Champions League football and the top four places are almost guaranteed to these clubs.
"But they cannot collect all the pebbles on the beach and, if they're not interested, I would back us against anyone."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=562142&in_page_id=1779Hadde vært spennende å fått inn en eller to Sør-Amerikanere som er på vei opp! Her kan kanskje Nordin fortelle oss litt om hvilke spillere som burde være verdt å prøve seg på?
