Premier League iconic moments: Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan's 'love it' rant - On This Day April 29 1996

A quarter of a century on, Kevin Keegan's Newcastle perhaps remain the greatest entertainers of the Premier League era.

And while David Ginola's flair, Les Ferdinand's goals and the sheer defensive ambivalence of a free-spirited backline should be what people remember most about Keegan's team, one iconic moment he provided himself is what's indelibly etched on the history of British sport.

Rarely, if ever, has a post-match interview so short in controversy yielded such abiding, legendary status.

Let's take ourselves back to 1996.

The Keegan interview before THE Keegan interview

So what brought on what came to be known as Kevin Keegan's 'I will love it' rant?

It gets churned out season after season, whenever a manager is perceived to have cracked under pressure during a post-match interview.

Whether that is fair or not, without doubt Keegan was under pressure at that time.

Three weeks prior to writing himself into the history books through an emotional outburst live on Sky Sports, he'd kept his composure in altogether different circumstances.

Defeat at Blackburn, Newcastle's fifth loss in eight matches, meant Keegan's side trailed Manchester United by six points with five matches to play.

In mid-January they were 12 points clear at the top.

A deflated Keegan all but conceded the title to Sir Alex Ferguson's team.

"I would like us to finish runners-up if we can't win it. This club has not finished runners-up for a long time. Manchester United are red-hot favourites and you have to give credit to them," he said.

"It is not so much that we have fallen apart, they have had a tremendous run as well. Both those things had to happen."

But they had fallen apart - seven points from eight matches is hardly title-winning form.

Fergie's mind games

Manchester United were sitting pretty and en route to a third title in four years.

The only note of defiance in Keegan's words at Ewood Park had been these:

"It's definitely not over. If Southampton turn Manchester United over, and we beat Villa it is back as it was tonight. The players are a bit low, but the final chapter has not been written."

Well that did happen, and Newcastle won their next match against Southampton too.

Cue Sir Alex Ferguson's legendary mind games, paving the way for "the final chapter" as Keegan described it, although he can't have envisaged having such a starring role in this story's dramatic ending.

With Newcastle facing Leeds and Nottingham Forest, Sir Alex suggested that those opponents may not try as hard against Keegan's side as they had against Manchester United.

He even went as far as to say Forest might lose on purpose in what was the Magpies' game in hand, because the teams were playing each other for Forest legend Stuart Pearce's testimonial later that year.

I know we have the benefit of hindsight, but it sounds like pretty straightforward wind-up merchant stuff doesn't it?

Well it worked a treat.

The night of the rant

And so came April 29 1996 and that famous evening at Elland Road.

Newcastle had beaten Leeds 1-0 to record a third straight win and ensure that the title race would go down to the final day of the season.

Speaking to Sky Sports duo Richard Keys and Andy Gray after the game, Keegan burst - he wasn't even asked about Ferguson's comments, he chose to bring them up.

KEEGAN: We just want to keep our hopes alive, and a lot of things have been said over the last few days, some of it almost slanderous, and we've never commented, we just got on working, trying to pass the ball like we do in training.

KEYS: What do you mean by that? That people have been having a go at you and your team?

KEEGAN: No, no - I think things have been said about... I think you've got to send Alex Ferguson a tape of this game, haven't you? Isn't that what he asked for?

GRAY: Well, I'm sure if he was watching it tonight Kevin he could have no arguments about the way Leeds went about their job and really, they tested your team.

KEEGAN: And we're playing Nottingham Forest on Thursday, and he objected to that. Now, that was fixed up four months ago, we were supposed to play Forest, I mean that sort of stuff, we're bigger than that.

KEYS: That's part and parcel of the psychological battle isn't it, Kevin?

KEEGAN: No, that's... when you do that with footballers, like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce, I've kept really quiet, but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that.

We have not resorted to that, but I'll tell you, you can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and... and... I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it.

What happened next?

Newcastle missed the opportunity to move level on points with Manchester United by drawing their game in hand at Nottingham Forest three days later.

The Magpies again drew 1-1 on the final day, this time with Tottenham, while Sir Alex's side won 3-0 at Middlesbrough to win the title by four points.

That outcome is what has sealed Kevin Keegan's rant a place in the history books as an example of an emotional breakdown under pressure. Another rival who succumbed to Fergie mind games.

Its place was further cemented by the dramatic, shock resignation of 'King Kev' midway through the following season, saying he'd taken the club as far as he could.

Keegan, and many of his 1995/96 squad, are adamant that his natural, emotional style had taken Newcastle to the brink of the Premier League title in the first place.

Had they managed to pip Manchester United, that rant would now be talked about as a piece of managerial genius, they argue. But they didn't.

Love it, loathe it, or just plain like it, it really was something else.

As was Keegan's Newcastle team.

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