KEVIN KEEGAN will concentrate on strengthening his squad this week – and push all talk of adding to his backroom staff into the background.
 But Shearer has gone to Uganda to do some charity work for homeless youngsters and it is unlikely he will have any contact with Keegan this week. This will allow Keegan, who only had 10 senior outfield players at his disposal against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, to focus on bringing some much-needed new blood to St James’s Park. And he knows that he is facing a race against time with the transfer window slamming shut again in just 10 days’ time. When I asked KK if he had made any decision on his backroom staff, he told me: “Not yet. Obviously my first priority now is to see if we can get anyone in. “The players are saying ‘we need players’, and if the players are saying that, and I’m saying that, you can be assured we’ve got a small, but good quality, squad. “There were only 16 players we could pick against Bolton. When the African guys come back, and the guys who are suspended come back, we’ll have a strong squad if we can get one or two in. “That’s what you need in the Premiership.” However, one familiar face has already joined Keegan at St James’s Park. Arthur Cox, who signed Keegan for Newcastle and was part of his team during his first managerial spell at United, will take up a role in his new regime. I was surprised when Keegan came back to United and equally surprised when “Coxie” decided to retire from football with Manchester City. For in all my time covering Newcastle I have never met anyone in football who loves the games as much as Arthur Cox. And it is clearly Cox’s wisdom which Keegan will be banking on at St James’s Park where, like Terry McDermott, he may or may not be given an official title. It will come as no surprise that Keegan is surrounding himself with people he knows, and while he concentrates on signing players he knows, he will have to decide on the massive backroom staff he inherited from Sam Allardyce. I am told there are 23 of them and it is highly unlikely that they will be kept on under the new regime. | 
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