Newcastle United MD Derek Llambias admits the regime miscalculated the fall-out from the Kevin Keegan saga.

He said: "We tried to keep him - Mike insisted that we should keep him. We tried our best to keep him, but once someone crosses that line, it's very difficult to get them back.

"Kevin - what can you say? He is the Messiah, he is a great guy. I promise you, Kevin was where we wanted to go.

"We are trying to resolve our differences with Kevin and hopefully, we will get there very shortly."