KEVIN KEEGAN rejected the chance to sign Karim Benzema for Newcastle, claims former club vice president Tony Jimenez.

Ex-Toon manager Kevin Keegan has lifted the lid on the bizarre goings-on at St James’ Park with a series of revelations in his new autobiography this week.

One of the targets for his criticism was Jimenez, who was brought in by controversial owner mike Ashley to head up player recruitment.

And the businessman has decided to hit back at Newcastle legend Keegan by revealing his own strange decisions when it came to signing players.

Jimenez told the Times: “The minute you questioned him he lost the plot.

“During that window we offered him the players that we were working on when we thought Harry Redknapp was coming as manager — Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Lassana Diarra — and he said none of them were good enough.

“The other player we were really keen on was Daniel Sturridge. He said he’d had him as a kid at Man City and that he wasn’t good enough for League One.

“He didn’t want Hatem Ben Arfa or Karim Benzema either. We asked Kevin for a list of players for every position, bearing in mind he had $45million to spend.

“Our list included Benzema and Ben Arfa who were young players at Lyon, as well as Samir Nasri.

“Kevin took one look and called them all chancers. His list was David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Ronaldinho, Kaka among others.

“We added their transfer value up and it was $724m, plus $181.5m in wages.”

Jimenez says Keegan also left them stumped when it came to his desperation to offer Michael Owen a bumper new long-term deal - while at the same time trying to tell the club to sell a teenage Andy Carroll.

The businessman added: “Kevin wanted to give him [Owen] a new five-year deal on $250,000 a week.

“We made a counter offer of $145,000 which would reach $218,000 if he played 65 minutes per game. Keegan went ballistic.

“He also went mad when we gave a new contract to Carroll, whom he said would never make it as a professional. He said $544,000 was a fantastic price. We couldn’t trust his judgment.”