Kevin Keegan was adamant that Tino Asprilla was not to blame for Newcastle United’s failure to win the Premier League title in 1996.
At the peak of the entertainers’ era, the Magpies were leading in the Premier League table, and were keen on adding to their already large gap.
However, Newcastle United’s gap began to narrow, and more firepower was needed. Cue the Colombian attacker, Tino Asprilla.
Some mature fans will remember Asprilla arriving on Tyneside during a snowstorm in his woollen coat, but others will also remember his famous debut off the bench against Middlesbrough, where he helped Newcastle come back from a goal down to win 2-1 at the Riverside Stadium.
Elsewhere, Asprilla’s best Newcastle moment was his hat-trick against Barcelona in the 1997 Champions League, securing one of the most memorable wins in the club’s history.
However, his time on Tyneside was marred by inconstancy, with many blaming his arrival for their missing out on the Premier League title in the 1995/96 season. However, Kevin Keegan was very keen to put an end to those talks in a post-season interview.
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Kevin Keegan defended Tino Asprilla after Newcastle United lost the Premier League title race
There were many factors to Newcastle’s failure to capture the Premier League that season, with a lack of goals in the second half of the season being a big catalyst.
Elsewhere, Keegan’s famous rant was clearly a personal tipping point, which suggested Sir Alex Ferguson had won the mental war between the two.
Fans will also look to Newcastle’s entertaining 4-3 loss to Liverpool as a game which cost them the title. With those in mind, Keegan made it clear in a 1996 interview that Asprilla was not to blame for failing to get Newcastle the Premier League title.
“I think to blame him for our demise in the Championship is nothing more than scandalous,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot more to it than that; if people analyse it, they’ll see it.
“A lot of players didn’t play well from the time he came. My initial plan was to bring him on slowly, put him as a substitute, and fetch him on. What you saw in that 20 minutes against Middlesbrough made me think, ‘why wait’. I took that decision to put him in. I thought I could accommodate him; I was aware of what other people were saying.
“It’s unfair really to pick him out, but people will do that, and I’d much sooner have them do what is the right way and say ‘the manager made the mistakes’, the players don’t make the mistakes.”
Tino Asprilla never truly recovered from Newcastle United blame game
Alan Shearer joined Newcastle in 1996, thus eliminating the need for Asprilla to be the starting striker on Tyneside. He spent a lot of the 1996/97 season as a substitute as Shearer formed a sensational partnership with fellow Newcastle legend Les Ferdinand.
However, there was a glimmer of hope for the Colombian, who regained his place in the starting XI when Shearer suffered a serious injury in 1997/98 pre-season, but his hat-trick against Barca in September proved to be his final goals for Newcastle.
In the end, Asprilla was sold back to Parma for £6m in 1998, having scored nine goals in 48 Premier League appearances, as well as nine goals in 11 European appearances.
Despite his sluggish end to the season, Asprilla is still considered a legend on Tyneside for his extravagance and gifted technical ability, but some will still blame him for Newcastle’s Premier League failure in 1996.
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