Any youngster signing for Southampton in 1919, as they fulfilled their final fixtures in the Southern League, was joining a strong squad of players and might expect a long wait in the Reserves, pending an injury or two – unless a star were to depart for higher things, as the Saints, having climbed rapidly to the Football League’s Second Division, then stalled there for 31 years, before going back down.

By any standards, though, Michael Keeping’s wait for a game with the first team was excessive. Signed as a 17 year-old from his home-town club, and given 10 shillings (50p) a week to cover his travelling expenses, he would have to queue behind the established Fred Titmuss – and his occasional seasoned deputies at left-back – for almost five years.

Even then, he would get only half-a-dozen games in 1924-25. But he virtually made the position his, the following autumn, to the extent that when Titmuss returned, in February 1926, for one last game before leaving for Plymouth, it was only because Keeping was away, having an international trial. Although England were in need of a settled left-back, Mike was not selected. But he did get to go on the FA’s tour of Canada that summer, returning to be ever-present in the League, in 1926-27, and throughout a Cup-run to the semi-final. He also toured South Africa along with Bert Shelley in 1929. Mike was now firmly in possession at left-back. Oddly, at a time when managers would shuffle their senior players to cover for an injury, that was the only position in which Mike ever played for the first team.

He occupied it with both pace and poise, enabling him to turn on the run and to sweep the ball straight up the touchline to the waiting winger. He had a reputation for being equally stylish off the pitch, the hours he took over his appearance becoming something of a joke among his team-mates.

In September 1931, he represented the Football League against the Irish League. England by now had a well-established left-back in Ernie Blenkinsop, who was about to be made captain, so any chance Keeping had of being capped at 29 looked slim. And any argument was effectively settled in January 1932,

when he was struck down with appendicitis and missed the rest of the season. He was back in 1932-33 and going strong – until February when he was sold, along with John Arnold, to Fulham, the principal exploiters of Southampton’s financial straits. Jimmy McIntyre – the man who had given Mike his start, but who was now managing Fulham – reckoned that a joint fee of £5,100 was “the best deal I ever brought off.”

Mike remained at Craven Cottage until 1941, when he returned to Milford and the family’s motorcar business. Later, after coaching or managing in Spain and Holland, he took over the reins at Poole Town. His exploits at Real Madrid and how he came to save them from relegation are covered in detail in “Days Like These”, but a letter describing his time out there written by him to the Sports Editor of the Echo is reproduced in his scrapbook section. He had always been a student of the game even to the extent that when he was a player he would bring a “cinema camera” to the training sessions and film his colleagues. He would then have the films developed and show them in the boiler house beneath the stand where is was dark enough for good projection.