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Betting fans who thought the replacement of Sam Allardyce with Kevin Keegan was a catastrophic error which could only be made by a club suffering terminal panic and self-delusion are now faced with the depressing task of contemplating the possibility that they might have been wrong.

Smug righteousness prevailed for a while. With Keegan accumulating a mere two points from seven matches following Allardyce’s 26 prior to his sacking in January, it looked like the anti-Keegan brigade had got it right and that the Toon were going down.

And then a miracle occurred. Newcastle embarked on a win/draw streak that produced ten points from four games and put them in what must surely be a place safe from relegation. How, what, why – who knows? You have to believe it must be King Kev come back to life.

Keegan is a good communicator so long as you don’t stop to analyse the content too much. His strength lies in his inherent sincerity and speaking is merely a vehicle to put this across. Couple this with his optimism and warmth and you have a cocktail of attitude sure to drive the cynics wild.

True, he has had his past failures - which have been monumental in some instances. Looking back though, the one that stands out is his resignation as England manager on the grounds of his own self-admission that he wasn’t up to the job. The tendency was to revile him for his failure but it’s a rare thing these days for anyone in public life to admit his limitations and step aside for a better manager to take his place. That’s what I remember and that’s why, through gritted teeth, when all is said and done, this cynic wishes him well.