Going back to a person or place where at some point in your life things seemed pretty good can be hard to resist. It is a temptation that certainly exists in the comparatively peculiar world of football, where a return to something from your past carries with it similar expectation.
Just like in real life, it is usually never quite the same. Here are Sport.co.uk’s top ten instances of footballers who should have most likely left past glories untouched.
Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan is a name that would also feature high on the list of comebacks that did work. After helping Newcastle United back into the top flight as a player, he returned a decade later and did the same as manager. During his five year reign ‘King Kev’ led the Toon Army to within touching distance of the 1995-1996 Premier League title.
While material success was not achieved, Keegan’s impact was such that when owner Mike Ashley brought him back to the club in January 2008, the reception afforded him by Newcastle fans earned him the new moniker of the ‘Geordie Messiah’. Unfortunately Ashley was not such a fervent believer. Keegan kept them up that season, but a month into the following campaign resigned after interference over transfers from a boardroom staff including Dennis Wise. “Clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want,” said Keegan.
Alan Shearer
The aftermath of Keegan’s departure from Newcastle saw both Chris Hughton and Joe Kinnear attempt to steady a ship that, for a variety of reasons, was slowly sinking. Cue once more, the return of a former Geordie hero.
Alan Shearer had been linked with a return to Newcastle as manager ever since his retirement from playing but had up to this point resisted. However the club’s precarious position in the Premier League’s bottom three prompted Shearer into action, the Magpies’ all-time leading scorer given the eight remaining games to keep Newcastle afloat.
Yet even Shearer was unable to inspire them, recording only five points out of a possible 24 as they finished third bottom. A managerial career possibly over it before it even begun?
Glenn Hoddle
Newcastle United are far from being the only club in recent years to look to an ex-player to revive their fortunes. In 2001 Tottenham Hotspur also looked to one of their all time greats and hired Glenn Hoddle.
It was an appointment that had felt some years in coming for the fans and Hoddle himself. After respectable if unsuccessful spells in charge of Chelsea and England among others, it was hoped at Tottenham he would fulfil his management potential and produce the kind of magic he had there as a player. It was not to be a match made in Heaven. Hoddle’s Spurs at times played some wonderful football but could not achieve any real consistency. A spectacular 5-1 League Cup semi-final thrashing of Chelsea was followed by a frustrating 2-1 final defeat to Blackburn Rovers. Hoddle was sacked in 2003.
Graeme Souness
When Graeme Souness returned to Liverpool as manager in 1991 the club were in much better shape than those mentioned in the examples above. Appointed just prior to the end of that season, they went on to finish second behind Arsenal having won the league the year before.
Having just won three championships with Rangers, Souness’ stock was rising, and with him replacing fellow Scot and ex-Reds player Kenny Dalglish, hopes were high he could replicate the achievements of his compatriot.
Instead there is no getting around that Souness’ brief tenure was the beginning of a decline at Liverpool which has lasted to this day. The solitary FA Cup he won a disappointing return.
Howard Kendall
As both a player and manager at Everton, Howard Kendall played a major role in two of the club’s most successful periods. Having already achieved legendary status between 1967 and 1974 as a player, he took charge of the Toffees as they along with Merseyside rivals Liverpool dominated the English game of the 1980s.
After leaving Everton in 1987, frustrated by the ban on European competition for English clubs after the Heysel tragedy, Kendall returned to the blue side of Liverpool in 1990. Times had changed and he struggled to lift Everton above mid-table mediocrity in a three year stint. Kendall returned once more for the 1997-1998 season but the Toffees fared even worse, narrowly avoiding relegation on the final day.
Marco van Basten
Returning to the familiarity of a former club is certainly not just an English phenomenon; it is a temptation that extends all over the football world. Having begun his brief but brilliant career there in 1982, Marco van Basten returned to Ajax in the summer of 2008 as he looked to reinstate the sort of quality the Amsterdam outfit were synonymous for in his heyday. He lasted one season and resigned after failing to qualify for the Champions League.
By signing a four-year contract van Basten seemed in it for the long-haul. But his resignation after just one season suggests even he didn’t appreciate the enormity of the task at hand.
Jurgen Klinsmann
Jurgen Klinsmann’s second spell at Tottenham proved comebacks can work. While not quite the force of yore, he still had the quality to fire them to safety when relegation threatened. Unfortunately his second spell at Bayern Munich, this time as manager, did not prove so happy.
Having taken Germany to the 2006 World Cup semi-final Bayern hoped Klinsmann could implement his philosophy and style in making the Bavarian giants a serious force in Europe again. While Klinsmann was looking to the future the Bayern hierarchy were more concerned with the present. With worries existing over them even qualifying for the tournament, a Champions League thrashing by Barcelona prompted club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, general manager Uli Hoeness and director Karl Hopfner to decide time was a luxury they did not have.
Andrei Shevchenko
Once one of the most feared strikers in world football, Andrei Shevchenko’s estimated £30 million move to Chelsea had transformed him into the world’s biggest transfer flop as he struggled with the English game. Surplus to requirements at Chelsea, Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani offered him a possible lifeline as his former club took him back on loan for the 2008-2009 season.
Sadly for the Ukrainian it was not to be the joyous homecoming for which he hoped. With appearances few and far between he failed to score at all in Serie A. Shevchenko has since returned to another former club Dynamo Kyiv.
Robbie Keane
With Rafa Benitez seemingly happy to let him rot in the Anfield stands, Robbie Keane was probably right to take any escape route possible. Back at Spurs the Irish striker played his part in helping steer Harry Redknapp’s side away from the relegation zone.
However after the summer arrival of Peter Crouch, coupled with the form of Jermain Defoe, Keane was reminded he could not easily expect things to be the same as before. No longer a virtual guarantee in Tottenham’s forward line, the Irishman has now looked to Celtic for the regular first team football he craves
Juninho
The Brazilian magician returned twice to Middlesbrough after his initial, mesmerising spell on Teesside. Having helped the club secure their first major trophy, the 2004 Carling Cup, it is difficult to class Juninho’s third spells at the club as a failure.
Yet on both returns, through a combination of injuries and difficulty in fitting him into the team, he lacked some of the quality he had shown first time around. Fortunately for Juninho his place in the hearts of Boro fans was earned forever. But this served as a warning that by returning to old surroundings, there is always a risk of doing damage to the memories you built there first time around.