Interview: Kevin Keegan

Having spent 17 years as a professional footballer and 16 years in management, there isn't much that Kevin Keegan hasn't witnessed in the world of football.

Now working as a pundit for ESPN, the 62-year-old has been part of the coverage of some of the biggest games in the sporting calendar - one of which was Wigan Athletic's FA Cup final victory over Manchester City.

Sports Mole, along with a handful of other reporters, had a quick chat with the former City boss at Wembley about the controversial late kickoff time for the FA Cup, what type of players Liverpool should be hunting for in the transfer window and if Roberto Martinez's future remains at Wigan.

Thoughts on the decision to give the FA Cup final another late 5.15pm kickoff time
"I think most of the traditionalists are against it. I'm from an era when the kickoff was at 3pm [and] it was the last game of the season. The league had finished, the cup final always came one week after the season had finished. It was like the curtain closer, but it's long since not been like that. I'm still against the semi-finals being at Wembley as well, so I don't think I'm in the minority, I think I'm in the majority, but we live in a very commercial football world now where the Premier League are going at the side of the FA Cup.

"People think they're the same thing, but of course they're different competitions and run by different people. A lot of people have got to get what they need out of their commitments, but I feel sorry for the fans. For us it's not a problem, you're just three hours behind the time, but 3pm, Saturday, end of the season, you know who the champions are, is where most people place it because that's their memories. Things move on though, nothing stays the same."

Discussing whether teams fall victim to complacency on cup final days
"Complacency can come into it, but sometimes you find yourself in there and for some reason, the team's not playing well. I've been in a winning one and a losing one. We came with a very strong Liverpool side [in 1977] - red hot favourites to beat Manchester United, that's hard to believe now I know! We had won the league, we were in the European Cup final, we came here on the mid-Saturday and we just had to play and we didn't, we lost. If you say to me, 'what happened?', I'd say, 'I don't know'.

"Three days later we were in Rome playing fantastic against Borussia Monchengladbach and winning the European Cup. They're not machines footballers, they can have off days and teams sometimes will go out with the right intentions and after 15 minutes it's just not happening."

What type of players Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers should be hunting for in the summer transfer window
"They're still way behind, the league table doesn't lie. They're still a lot of points behind and still way behind so they're going to need two/three players - a good central defender is absolutely imperative because it seems like, for whatever reason, Rodgers has been playing Carragher over [Martin] Skrtel knowing that Carragher's going to leave. [It] sort of tells its own story I think. They'll definitely sign a central defender.

"I'm not sure about forwards, they've got a lot of them, but they're all the same. They're all small, quick guys. What's going to happen with Andy Carroll? He's still there. I still think they need, what I call, a centre-forward. I know they've bought [Daniel] Sturridge and I know they've got [Luis] Suarez, something I call a centre-forward, which none of those are - not Sturridge, not [Fabio] Borini, not [Philippe] Coutinho, these are all what I call second strikers at best and midfield players."

If Andy Carroll should have a future at Liverpool following his loan deal at West Ham United
"I think it's pretty obvious that Brendan doesn't want to because when he moved in, the first thing you would normally do is look at all the players and if he wants to loan him out, loan him out at Christmas, but he loaned him out straight away, so, maybe he had a conversation and said, 'yeah, let him go'. So that maybe tells its own story, if that did happen, but I'm guessing there."

Talking about whether relegation for Wigan Athletic could pave the way for manager Roberto Martinez's exit to Everton
"I don't know. He's got a very good relationship with [chairman] Dave Whelan, there was talk of him having a chance of getting the Liverpool job last summer. I don't know if that's true or not but certainly there were rumours.

"He'll want to stay in the Premier League, he's done a great job keeping Wigan up while David Moyes has done a great job in 10 years not winning anything, but [they're both] doing great jobs at clubs where they're restricted of cash to spend on players and wages. You don't get the best players with low wages, they want big money because that's what they command. If the question is, if they go down, can you see Martinez staying? Maybe no, but the only person who really knows is him."

Sports Mole spoke to Keegan during our behind-the-scenes tour with ESPN at Wembley for the FA Cup final.