Keegan set to return with Fulham

Kevin Keegan, who left football some eight months ago when he walked out on Newcastle and the Premiership is expected to return to the game today with Second Division Fulham.

The club's billionaire owner Mohamed Al Fayed appears to have persuaded Keegan to take on the role of chief executive at Craven Cottage. Ray Wilkins, coaching at Crystal Palace, is expected to be named as manager.

Fulham would say little yesterday but it is understood that although negotiations with Keegan were still being finalised, an announcement will be made today.

Keegan said shortly after his departure from Tyneside in January that his remaining ambition in the game was to take a struggling club in the lower divisions and transform them into a football power. Al Fayed's millions will give him every opportunity.

The Harrods owner believes only a high-profile and respected football figure such as Keegan can deliver the goods he ordered when he took over Fulham in May: Premiership football inside three seasons - "the Manchester United of the south"..

After buying club and ground and promising to invest at least £30 million, including redeveloping Craven Cottage as a 25,000 all-seat stadium, Al Fayed is now gambling that his chequebook and Keegan's pulling power can attract the quality of players needed for such a rocket-like rise through the divisions.

Keegan was even seen with Al Fayed at a recent Fulham game, a public display which many fans criticised as insensitive and unprofessional by both men given that Micky Adams was still the manager.

After leaving Newcastle Keegan said he had nothing to prove in returning to management. But last week he publicly admitted for the first time that he might come back if given the right opportunity.

Adams failed to arrive with the Fulham team at Wolves last night for their English League Cup tie at Molineux. Team affairs were in the hands of the assistant manager Alan Cork and a notice posted by Wolves said: "Officials and players from Fulham have been instructed not to comment on the reports."

And not all is sweetness and light in London SW6. When Keegan went to Newcastle in the summer of 1982, the whole of Tyneside greeted his arrival. Yesterday Al Fayed's decision to push Adams aside when he was just over a year into a five-year contract, was described at the ground by one long-standing season-ticket holder as "disgraceful".

Blackburn proved money can buy success. Middlesbrough did not. Today Al Fayed and Keegan are expected to begin their experiment in higher purchase.

Tottenham are refusing to confirm whether or not they are trying to sign Fabrizio Ravanelli on a three-month loan deal, but yesterday the striker's agent revealed that his future is "24 hours" from being settled.

The Tottenham manager Gerry Francis opted for the more offical line, however, saying: "I never talk about other club's players." Francis had talks with the Spurs operations manager Daniel Sugar before Tuesday's draw at Bolton and is understood to have asked if Middlesbrough could be contacted about Ravanelli.