Keegan emerged from a heated four-hour showdown with his job intact, but don't read too much into that because that was just Round One.
Keegan was told that money for transfers is tight and that captain Owen will see his current £120,000-a-week pay slashed by £2m a year if he wants a new contract to start in a year's time.
The Journal said today: Keegan will remain as the Newcastle boss for next season, but he has been told in no uncertain terms that outbursts such as last week's, when he appeared to criticise Ashley and the money available for transfers, will no longer be tolerated by the tough-talking billionaire businessman and his boardroom team.
The summer war chest will be around £20million, but if the manager wants more money he will have to sell first.
Keegan wants Owen on a long-term contract, but don't expect the England international to rush into any deal after being offered less than he is already earning.
Owen, as always, stays tight lipped and lets others do the speculating, but if ever there was a green light saying "come and get me" ... this is the moment.
And if Owen goes ... I suspect KK would follow.
Some say he "walks away from a challenge", but the times he has gone (Newcastle and England) it was because he felt he could do no more and the bottom line ... he didn't want to rob the Magpies or the FA of compensation.
Steve McClaren stayed until the death at England because he was not going to give up a £2m pay-off. Sam Allardyce, Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish did the same at Newcastle.
Keegan is a proud and honest man, and no-one (least of all Ashley) will change him. He has been the same throughout his football career.
He HATES to be wronged! During his playing days he was the same, and you only have to look back to the 1974 Charity Shield when he and Billy Bremner were sent off.
Keegan was the victim, not the culprit at Wembley, and Brian Clough said it at the time: "Bremner was intent on making Keegan's afternoon a misery.
"He kicked him across every blade of grass on that pitch.
"Keegan snapped, was sent off and threw his shirt to the ground. Something he will have regretted, but it was the action of a player who felt he had been wronged."
This is going to be a strange summer and I get the feeling, unlike Sir John Hall who was prepared to meet KK half way, Ashley is capable of putting a spanner in the works.
And if the owner thinks Dennis Wise will step into the job unnoticed, he is in for the shock of his life!