Michael Keeping

Michael Keeping
Personnel
Surname	Alexander Edwin Michael Keeping
birthday	August 22, 1902
place of birth	Milford on Sea ,  England
date of death	March 28, 1984
Place of death	Milford on Sea ,  England
position	defense
Juniors
Years	station
1919-1920	Southampton FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1920-1933	Southampton FC	265 (10)
1933-1939	Fulham FC	205 0(7)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1948-1950	real Madrid
1959-60	Poole Town
1960-61	Heracles Almelo
1 Only league games are given.

Alexander Edwin Michael "Mike" Keeping (born August 22, 1902 in Milford on Sea , England , † March 28, 1984 ibid) was an English football player and coach .

Career as a player

Michael Keeping began his football career in 1919 as an amateur player with Southampton FC in the Southern League . A year later he received a professional contract with the Saints , but did not make his debut in the first team of Southampton FC in the Football League Second Division until 1924 . In the course of the next two years he became a regular player in the position of left-back. Particularly noteworthy is his participation in the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1927 , when the Saints lost 1: 2 to Arsenal . Due to financial difficulties sold the Saints Keeping, who brought in 5,000 pounds as a couple with Johnny Arnold , in February 1933 to the second division promoted Fulham FC . He played for the Cottagers until the beginning of World War II in 1939. Apart from third place in 1933, the Londoners occupied midfield positions at that time.

In 1929 he was appointed to the selection of "professionals" who played the FA Charity Shield against an amateur selection and won this game 3-0 in front of 6,000 spectators in New Cross , London. In September 1931 he was in a selection of the Football League which put down an Irish league selection 4-0 in front of 15,000 spectators in Blackpool's Bloomfield Road Stadium .

In September 1938 it was reported that he was the only footballer with a pilot's license and that he owned his own aircraft. He also had two automobile workshops.

Career as a coach

From February 1948, Keeping coached the reigning Spanish cup winner Real Madrid . He took over the club in danger of relegation in eleventh and fourth from last place in the league and led it to eleventh place in the remaining nine of 26 games. On its debut it set a 1: 4 home defeat against Celta Vigo . It wasn't until August 2018 that another coach started with four goals conceded in his competitive debut at Real: Julen Lopetegui lost the final of the UEFA Super Cup with 2: 4 against Atlético Madrid . On June 13th, Keeping won the Copa Eva Duarte , the predecessor of today's Spanish Supercup, with a 3-1 victory over the champions from 1947, Valencia CF. In the following two seasons, he led Real Madrid to third and fourth places in the league. In 1949 he won the Trofeo Teresa Herrera , an invitation tournament, with Real by a 2-1 victory in La Coruña over the Racing Club de France . From the beginning of the 1950/51 season you need a certificate from a national coaching course. Keeping considered this a "waste of time" and refused, at least initially, to participate. At the end of October 1950, he was dismissed after the eighth day of play for indigestible remarks. However, this was preceded by equally indecent defeats against Real Sociedad , FC Barcelona and Deportivo La Coruña with results of 2: 6, 2: 7 and 0: 5. Real was in seventh place at the time and should end the season in ninth place under his successors Baltasar Albéniz and the Uruguayan Héctor Scarone .

In mid-January 1959 he became a coach at the English club Poole Town in the Southern League . In connection with this, it was reported that after his time at Real Madrid he still held an administrative position at a Dutch club.

In September 1960 he followed an advertisement and became the coach of the Dutch second division club Heracles Almelo after he received excellent references from both the Football Association and the KNVB . There he unexpectedly resigned from office at the end of January 1961 for "family reasons" - the marriage with his bride was pending - and went back to England. Despite the lack of a trainer diploma, he was perceived as a competent trainer.

It is reported that he also had other functions with clubs in Denmark, France and North Africa.

Web links

• Alexander Edwin Michael Keeping , saintsplayers.co.uk - The Southampton FC Player Archive
• Keeping (statistical data), BDFutbol (as of August 12, 2020)
• The Keeping Family in Milford , Milford On Sea News, December 13, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Football League V Irish League, September 23, 1931 , 11v11.com
2. ↑ Louis T. Kelly: Stud Marks , Liverpool Echo , September 10, 1938, p. 6th
3. ^ Keeping Gets Poole Job , Daily Mail (London), Jan. 21, 1959, p. 9.
4. ^ Gary Chalk, Duncan Holley: Saints - a Complete Record , Breedon Books, 1987, p. 283. ISBN 0-907969-22-4 .