KEVIN Keegan's philosophy on football is simple but expensive writes Richard Mulligan

"It doesn't matter where I go, I expect big things. I am not a manager who sets unrealistically low targets so I can just jump above them. I aim for the moon but sometimes miss and hit the stars. Where's the problem with that?"

That's the view of the Manchester City manager who will take his team to the Reebok Stadium for a lunchtime game this Saturday.

For City it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

On the one hand they could be set for their best league finish in a decade, and on paper have their best squad for a generation.

On the other the future of the club is uncertain, with recent boardroom upheaval and a maverick spending policy considering the financial uncertainty throughout the game.

Keegan is a talismanic figure, always instilling a free-flowing style on the pitch and encouraging hysteria and optimism in the stands at any team he looks after. This can be successful, as it proved at Newcastle during his five years with the North East club.

Newcastle may not have won the title in 1995-96, even though they led the table by 12 points at one stage, but regardless he took a struggling old Division Two team and took them to second place in the Premiership.

Likewise he was a breath of fresh air at Fulham as he was charged by Mohammed al-Fayed with the task of turning the Second Division side into world beaters.

He may not have finished the job, but again, he turned things around at Craven Cottage. It was he who could attract decent players to step down from the Premiership, and assure them of the all-important promotion.

But then England came calling and Keegan's national side struggled to Euro 2000 before suffering defeat at the hands of Portugal and Romania.

His greatest moment came when they beat Germany in between those two losses, but it was the old enemy who signalled the end of his tenure in the impossible job when at a rain-sodden Wembley England were beaten 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier in September 2000.

Keegan resigned in the dressing room after the game, in an amazing example of self-deprecation describing himself as "a bit short" when it came to coaching a team at the very highest level.

But that did not stop City taking him on in the summer of 2001 to replace Joe Royle, and his success at club level continued as he took the club into the Premiership at the first attempt. Inspired mainly by Royle's players, and the addition of free transfer Ali Benarbia, City ran away with the Division One title.

Then the real Kevin Keegan stood up. There has been £13 million spent on striker Nicolas Anelka, £7 million on Robbie Fowler and more seven figure sums on Sylvain Distin, Eyal Berkovic, Matias Vuoso and David Sommeil.

By anyone's standards City have had a good season, considering their recent yo-yo status, but a recent poor spell has seen hopes of Europe blasted.

Earlier in the campaign every victory seemed to be accompanied by quotes from Keegan suggesting a top six finish was a realistic possibility.

They have won just one of their last six games, and matters came to a head in their last game when they were beaten 5-0 at Chelsea. Keegan's comments after that game suggested there could be a clear out in the summer.

He said: "I said to the players afterwards 'Come on tell me something, some of you answer me back, but they couldn't'.

"I think we will look in the summer for some good players, who are going to cost very little and there might be plenty around.

"We are nowhere near where I want this club to be and nowhere near where this club wants to be."

Compared to the club's recent fortunes an outsider might suggest they should be quite happy where they are, despite that setback at Stamford Bridge.

But the spending under Keegan and his plans for the summer -- backed by a multi-million bank loan -- show he has plans to make City a major force as Newcastle were in the mid-1990s.

Keegan thinks big, and many believe this is why chairman David Bernstein quit the club as he felt he could no longer sanction spending at the rate at which Keegan was bringing in players.

Yes, this is the Keegan of old. Which is good news for Wanderers, as they chase another three points in the quest to stay in the Premiership.

City, like Newcastle and England in the past, are no great shakes in defence which is backed up by the statistic that shows they have the third worst defence in the top flight.

Keegan said: "It is a worry that we are conceding so many goals, particularly from set-pieces. We have been working on it but maybe we are working with players who are slow to pick up on it.

"I will learn a lot about my players in the closing games now. How we finish the season, what it means to finish as high as we can and how much the desire is.

"We can't get into Europe now so it is up to the players to show their character to finish off the season properly.

"If we can move three, four or five places up the table in these last seven games it would be fantastic and it is possible to do that when you look at the points."