As Bad as Things Got; Newcastle United, 20th April 1992

Before the Saudis, before Mike Ashley, and as Sir John Hall manouevred in the background, Newcastle United found themselves on the brink of relegation to the Third Division.

As English football basked in a warming post-Italia 90 glow of positivity, cold winds were blowing through Tyneside, a combination of years of decline and a power struggle that almost pushed the club down into the third tier, and by the Premier League launched its ‘whole new ball game’ in 1992 the club seemed to be in a perpetual state of decline.

The club’s previous spell in the doldrums had ended in a spectacular way. Relegation from the First Division in 1978 hadn’t been followed with much of a challenge to get back there, but the arrival of Kevin Keegan from Southampton in the summer of 1982 changed the atmosphere around the club.

Keegan hadn’t previously played for Newcastle and he wasn’t a local, but he connected almost immediately with supporters and, after a relatively near miss in 1983, promotion back to the top flight followed at the end of the following season, as Keegan retired as a player.

For a while, it looked as though Newcastle might have been heading back towards happier times. Keegan might have retired, but a triumvirate of lavishly talented local players – Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle – pointed a way towards a brighter future.