Keegan's a big Emre fan
04 Feb 2008 - 08:24:00
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- Keegan's a big Emre fan
Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan is pleased to have a player like Turkey international Emre at St James' Park.
The 27-year-old returned to the Magpies starting line-up for the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough after serving his suspension for the red card he picked up in the FA Cup win against Stoke City, and impressed his new manager.
However, Keegan insists he was not surprised by the Turk's class as he has been a long-time admirer of the player.
He said: "Emre offers us another option that none of the other players can quite offer us.
"He's different to anything else we've got and you need players like that around.
"I've always had them at my club and, if I haven't had them, I've always gone and bought one or two. You can go back to Scott Sellars or Peter Beardsley, or Eyal Berkovic at Manchester City."
Of his side's draw in the Tyne-Tees derby, Keegan added: "I thought we did enough to win here.
"I couldn't see anything wrong at all with the first goal that Michael (Owen) got. (Mark) Schwarzer just dropped it.
"But then we did get a good goal from a great delivery and Michael did what he does best.
"You'd prefer us to be able to close the game down but we weren't able to."