IT was one of the best kept secrets in footballing history and certainly one of the most surprising.

The equivalent nowadays of Saints secretly nogotiating for and then securing the signature of David Beckham from Real Madrid.

Pure fantasy.

Kevin Keegan, reigning European Footballer of the Year, was unveiled 25 years ago this week - on February 12, 1980 - as Southampton's new signing.

In a superbly stage-managed event in the gentile and unlikely setting of the Potters Heron Motel in Ampfield, Keegan was unveiled as a Southampton player.

And the football world shook with utter surprise and astonishment.

Saints boss Lawrie McMenemy had plucked a world footballing superstar from right under the noses of the game's giants.

It was a measure of the ambition of Southampton Football Club at that time and the negotiating brilliance of McMenemy himself that he could talk a man of Keegan's huge standing and charisma to choose the tiny, cramped Dell as the stage to make his much-heralded comeback to English football.

It rated as one of the most audacious transfer coups of them all.

Saints paid Bundesliga giants SV Hamburg around £400,000 for Keegan's services following the 1977 European Cup final.

The former Scunthorpe United startlet had gone on to star for Liverpool in a little and large strike partnership with the Welshman John Toshack which had sprung fear in defences home and abroad.

Keegan, energetic, resourceful and one of the most accomplished footballers of his day, had quite simply been the darling of Anfield, helping drive the Red Army to not just the best team in England, but in Europe as well

He was at the pinnacle of his football powers when he went to Hamburg and won the highly coveted European Footballer of the Year award two years running.

When he returned to England, everyone expected it would be with Liverpool or Manchester United or one of the big London clubs, or even Real Madrid or AC Milan.

So when Saints called a press conference at the Potters Heron, no-one knew quite what to expect.

A big signing, yes, because McMenemy was in the habit of plucking big rabbits out of the hat, but someone of Keegan's calibre? Preposterous!

I was one of a posse of pressman squeezed into a tiny backroom at the Potter's Heron, the backdrop of which was a small stage and curtain.

Sat on the stage were McMenemy, club chairman Alan Woodford and club captain Alan Ball.

Mac stood and announced: "Gentlemen, thank you for coming. Can I introduce you to our new signing."

Cue left of stage and to gasps from everyone in the packed room as Keegan stepped up on to the stage accompanied by wife Jean.

It was a magical, surreal moment. Here was football's glamour boy, with his tight, dark curls and expensive designer suit, being introduced as a player for Southampton, still perceived by many as the country cousins of England's top flight.

For the following two seasons, Keegan spearheaded a genuine attempt to challenge the big guns and significantly, in his second (and last) season with Saints, he scored the goal at Middlesbrough which took them to the top of the league for the first time. Keegan's stay at Saints was short, but very sweet. With the England captain in the fold alongside Channon, Ball, Armstrong and Williams, the quality of the football was the best ever seen at The Dell.

READ NORTHAM SOUL - RECREATING THE SPIRIT OF SOUTHAMPTON FC EVERY WEDNESDAY IN THE DAILY ECHO.