There was a moment, the briefest of moments, when the mask slipped and Kevin Keegan confessed that he, too, knew the struggle he faced in making Newcastle United more than a side-show again. He was midway through another call to arms for the Geordie nation, another bulletin from Planet Pollyanna, a happy place where, almost through sheer will and the love of the common people, the might of Manchester United, the intellect of Arsenal, the wealth of Chelsea and the history of Liverpool could be overcome, when he broke off to consider the impact that the Champions League has had on English football since his departure.

“There is an elite group that is maintained by the money from the Champions League,” he murmured. “It is as if they are funded to keep the others out.” And Keegan knows where he is now – nose pressed against that glass, looking for a way in.

As he said yesterday, he is no fool. His strength may be the ability to lift a cloud of misery from a football club with the force of his personality, but behind the façade he knows enough of the game to understand that it will take more than a rabble-rousing address to put Newcastle in contention again.

There are two Kevin Keegans and both were in evidence at St James’ Park yesterday. The first promised, if not the moon and the stars, at least a tilt at them, his ambition and belief expressed as eloquently as ever, pushing all the right buttons, giving the locals what they wanted, as he always did. The second was Keegan the realist, a 56-year-old football manager, who conceded that few good players can be bought in the transfer window and that the amount of quality in the Newcastle squad is frighteningly small. “There needs to be a certain amount of patience and I hope I get it,” Keegan said, sounding not dissimilar to Sam Allardyce, his predecessor.

He will be indulged, though, because of the man he is and because, unlike Allardyce, he will never deliver less than a spectacle. He did not win a leading competition during his previous spell at the club, but it would be impossible to guess that from the euphoria on Tyneside since his appointment. Denied a proper trophy beyond the Fairs Cup in 1969, they have come to quantify success by other means: having the best supporters, playing the most exciting football. It is in the latter area that Keegan is tipped to be a winner, although looking at the teams produced by Arsenal and United, even that will be hard.

An unashamed populist, Keegan was at home yesterday. He knew what the people demanded and how to give it to them. He contrived to invoke his local heritage – his father was from the region – and the coalmining past of grandfather Frank, who was a hero in the West Stanley mining disaster in 1909, in which 168 men died. To this end, at least, it was a classic performance, bringing to mind the way he bounded into the England job, after the unpopular Glenn Hoddle had been dismissed, and lit up the room with his enthusiasm.

“I asked Mike Ashley what he wants from me in 3½ years and he said he wanted to win something,” Keegan said. “And it is possible. It will be a tough challenge, but, yes, it is possible to win a cup, yes, it is possible to break into the top four. We did it once before, regardless of the sceptics from outside the region. Back then, when I said to Sir Alex Ferguson ‘look out, we’re after your title’, people laughed.

But do you know what? We very nearly did it. Now the fans must believe, like I do, that we can do it again. “For people up here, when they have worked all week, watching Newcastle is like people down south going to the theatre. They want something worth seeing; they don’t want 1-0.”

Considering that on a day when Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham United are at home, London attendances for Barclays Premier League matches alone near 150,000, saying that the capital is more fascinated by Ibsen than Owen may be missing the point, but Keegan knows what goes down well on Tyneside and the belief that Newcastle United are a club apart, incapable of being understood or appreciated by anyone from beyond the region, certainly by southerners, scores highly.

“This place is very special,” Keegan said, warming to his theme. “It is not just an ordinary football club and that is what people from outside do not get and never will.”

Presumably, he meant those who have doubted the wisdom of giving the manager’s job to a man who recently claimed to have watched one football match in three years, in the hope that he might recreate some mythical glory days, during which the club, with greater comparative resources than they have now, won nothing.

Then again, that is exactly the type of cynical observation that Keegan is determined to make a mockery of and he did come devilishly close before. His advantage now is much as it was then, the tide of goodwill and adulation that can do wonders for a team who have known only negativity.

Allardyce was an unpopular figure and players who will have felt the pressure of his painful decline may be buoyed by the optimism around Keegan. He will have the financial backing of a billionaire owner, the basis of a good team when all are fit and available and is well versed in the ludicrous level of expectation.

“I know the club inside out and that is why I am the best qualified person to do this job,” Keegan said. “Lots of people wanted it, but when you go into a club, many questions need answering and I already know the answers.”

Keegan’s arrival usually gives a club a bounce that lasts several weeks. Unfortunately, after today’s match at home to Bolton Wanderers, Newcastle’s next two matches are away to Arsenal, in the FA Cup and Premier League. For all his enthusiasm, he will fear that, by then, that the bounce has become more of a bobble.

Making promises and having a pop at the press: how the ‘Messiah’s’ return unfolded

All eyes were on the St James’ Park media room yesterday, awaiting Kevin Keegan’s grand entrance. Here is how Times Online covered the Newcastle United manager’s breathless encounter with the people who could make or break him . . .

The media room is packed. Rumours that it would take place in the stockroom of a Sports Direct outlet are wide of the mark.

Kevin Keegan is expected to be joined by Chris Mort, the Newcastle chairman, on the platform. Mike Ashley, the owner, must be watching it on Sky News with fans in the window of Radio Rentals, continuing to maintain his “man of the people” persona.

Television cameras are focusing on the door that Keegan is going to come through. It could be enough to inspire Shakin’ Stevens to mount a comeback.

Here comes Keegan, resplendent in a pale blue tracksuit, hopping on to the dais. The camera shutters go off and it sounds like a thousand butterflies taking off. He shakes hands with Mort.

Keegan is looking slightly pensive as he explains that understanding Newcastle United is not easy. He says it is not a normal club and people outside do not understand it. Understand what? I don’t get it. He is right, you know.

He feels he has a head-start in the job with his previous knowledge and the task ahead does not scare him.

It is clear that Keegan has done his homework after listing pretty much his whole squad as players who should be able to cope with the pressure of playing for Newcastle. Michael Owen is the first mentioned. Let’s just hope that knowing the names of his squad members is not the full extent of Keegan’s tactics.

Woah there, Keegan looks on the verge of a rant as he tells a journalist to wait his turn after talking over another. Is he getting grouchy in his old age? Keegan somehow sidesteps a pertinent question about Owen’s views on him, but he delivers the answer to a huge one by confirming that he will talk to Alan Shearer about a role at the club.

Despite keeping a serious look for the whole of the conference so far, Keegan takes a moment to have a pop at newspaper editors for omitting “facts that matter” when writing about him. In particular about him leaving Manchester City.

Mort keeps the questions ticking over but affords Keegan the spotlight.

Invoking the notion of the North-South divide, Keegan compares a trip to St James’ Park for Geordies as similar to the expectations of southerners when they go to the theatre. He has only been away from the game three years and now he believes that association football has been eradicated from all towns and cities south of the Tyne.

Joey Barton gets a mention. Keegan will back him 100 per cent. The new manager says he cannot change what has happened regarding the midfield player’s recent woes. But you are the Messiah, Kev.

Then it’s all over. Mort keeps us begging for more by drawing the conference to a close. If there is something that hasn’t changed with Keegan, it’s that he likes to make exciting promises. Roll on tomorrow and the match with Bolton Wanderers.

- Words by Tim Meston