Reading the Goats autobiography Keegan was a complete tosser towards him
I don't think KK rated him did he?
Will always love Goater for his contribution while here first under Royle then Keegan, both him and Ian Bishop's acquisition under the former were so important to City's transformation.
I don't think it was anything personal why KK let him go both were very important on our path to greatness, it's fair to say Goater although important ability wise he wasn't as good as the others around should've been, what stood out is his effort was tremendous and his knack of being in the right place thwarted Keegan's earlier plans to ditch him, personally I think in the end KK did sadly force him out after already having what he deemed as better quality.
Super Kev unfortunately wanted to in his eyes upgrade on what we had when he arrived, he already had Wanchope he'd signed Macken and then Anelka he also added Fowler to the mix so Goater was inevitably shown the door.
It was in his eyes the right thing to do plus it removed any pressure to use The Goat when we were losing and needed something different, in my opinion though even an ageing declining Goater would easily have scored more than Fowler did, as he put himself about much more and totally buzzed off playing for us.
Fowler was an awful acquisition and with what we paid only those very few important goals stops him being alongside Kalvin Phillips and Gerry Creaney for me, the worst part of his signing is it lead to our great chairman David Bernstein stepping down from his role at the club.
We could've signed Pauleta who at the time a brilliant hungry goalscorer and was also very unselfish for half the fee and wages we paid for Fowler, then also signed another playmaker or winger to really help the club's progress long term.
It was a shortsighted error to sign an injury prone past it Fowler when better alternatives were available or other positions needed major improvement, in my opinion Fowler was our biggest waste of a signing post 2000 up until after the takeover and that's even including Vuoso who never played a minute, because the money and wages we paid for Fowler was easily better spent elsewhere on good quality.
Goater will always be remembered fondly here he's not only a great loyal servant to the club and legend in the darkest of times, he's also a lovely guy who'd stop and chat to any blue for a good chat if he has the time he's proper top bloke.
