Former Leeds United manager Wise has never baulked at a challenge in his life and is also a master in the art of taking on a hostile crowd.

With Keegan's immediate future settled after days of wrangling, Newcastle supporters are demanding that Wise be axed as executive football director.

Doncaster-born Keegan was no longer prepared to accept interference from Wise in transfer matters – a situation that came to a head after the £12m sale of former Leeds winger James Milner to Aston Villa.

Keegan had threatened to walk away unless the matter is addressed – yesterday was the third day in a row when he was absent from training – but the question of compensation remained a thorny issue.

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley had stressed that Keegan had 'not been sacked' in order, it was believed, to avoid a possible £2m settlement on the remainder of his contract. There were suggestions that Keegan will have to pay £2m back to the club as a result of his resignation.

As the bullets flew back and forth between the rival camps, Wise was caught in the crossfire awaiting clarification on his role.

It may only be an outside possibility, but who is to say that Ashley might not to turn to Wise as a caretaker-manager now that Keegan has turned his back on Tyneside for a second time.?

It might sound implausible – considering Wise's current status as 'Public Enemy No 1' in the eyes of the Toon Army – but friendships in football often make common-sense redundant.

There was widespread shock and anger among Leeds supporters when club chairman Ken Bates gave Wise the manager's job at Elland Road in October 2006, but did the former Chelsea player bat an eyelid? Not in the slightest. Indeed, Wise, who chose Bates as a godfather to his son, appeared to revel in the unpopularity before eventually dumping the club without a word of apology.

Wise was offered a £1m-a-year role at Newcastle on the back of his friendship with owner Ashley and has claimed since that he is no longer interested in day-to-day football management.

That may be music to the ears of some of his ex-players.

Only yesterday, Leeds goalkeeper David Lucas said that new manager Gary McAllister treated players 'more like adults' than his predecessor.

"With training under Dennis Wise, you had to be really at it," said Lucas. "There was no slacking off otherwise you would get a telling-off. Now it seems that the manager treats us more like adults. We have a very professional, laid-back atmosphere now. As long as we are not taking the mick, we can do things at our own pace."

Ashley would need to be extremely brave or seriously foolish to put Wise in charge of Newcastle's first team, even if only on a temporary basis. Yet, if he did, Wise might perversely enjoy running a gauntlet of hate during Newcastle's next home game against Hull City.

It was being suggested on Tyneside last night that Wise could be reunited with former Leeds assistant Gus Poyet, currently No 2 to Juande Ramos at Spurs, at the Newcastle helm.

Former Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder says the latest situation at St James' Park is a 'tragedy' as the club lurches from 'one disaster to another.'

Roeder, now manager of Norwich City, said: "All Kevin wanted was to be allowed to manage Newcastle United. Or should I say manage the English way.

"It is the fashion today to use the European way of putting someone between the owner and the manager in some kind of technical director role, but it is always difficult for a manager when someone unknown turns up at the training ground on a Monday morning."

He added: "There's no stability at the club and I don't think there has been for a long time.

"They go from one manager to another and the people who suffer the most are the most important people, the supporters. When they talk about Newcastle being a great club, it's only great for one reason – because it has great supporters."