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Newcastle: Joe Kinnear May've Gone But The Damage He Did Will Remain

by Jonathan Anderson
5 February 2014 1 Comment

He came, he saw, he sold our best players and made Ashley a pretty penny - thank God JFK's gone but why the hell was he brought in in the first place?

Newcastle: Joe Kinnear May’ve Gone But The Damage He Did Will Remain

If you listened carefully enough, you could probably hear the collective sigh emanating from Newcastle city centre on Monday night. After eight long months as Director of F***-All, the ridiculous figure of Joe Kinnear finally called time on his Newcastle tenure and at long last got out of our club.

Since Mike Ashley took the quite staggering decision last June to bring ’Mad Joe’ back in as Director of Football, it has been nothing short of an embarrassing nightmare for all those who hold the club dear. Once again Ashley made our club a laughing stock with another appalling and baffling decision.

Bringing back Joe ‘f***ing’ Kinnear was a bizarre move to say the least, but I don’t think anyone quite expected what was to follow. Before he had even started in the job, Joe had us with our heads in our hands, as the rest of the football world pointed and laughed.

The infamous talkSPORT interview will now forever go down in football folklore. In a berserk fifteen minutes Joe referred to a host of first team players by their wrong names (farewell, Yohan Kebab), made ridiculous statements about being able to contact any top manager at the drop of a hat and even spouted lie after lie regarding his various accomplishments in the game.

Sadly after this most ominous of starts, it really didn’t get any better. Two transfer windows as the man in charge of player recruitment at Newcastle United and JFK accomplished absolutely nothing.

In the summer Newcastle were short of defensive cover and short of fire power. We were linked with a host of players for the whole summer, yet Joe somehow managed to land none of them on a permanent basis.

According to the press, Joe even managed to cancel a transfer that had already been agreed prior to his arrival for FC Twente’s Douglas. His only accomplishment of the summer? The loan signing of Loic Remy – without the option of a permanent deal.

In January it got even worse. Kinnear declared publicly that no players would be sold during the transfer window, before then promptly selling Yohan Cabaye to PSG for £20 million (Cabaye has since commented that he had an agreement with the club that he would be allowed to leave in January). Again Kinnear lied to the fans and once again he failed to land anybody on a permanent basis. The loan signing of out-of-favour Monchengladbach forward Luuk De Jong, his sole achievement.

It’s also worth stating that both De Jong and Remy are both Graham Carr targets and had long been on the clubs radar prior to Joe’s arrival.

In the talkSPORT interview Kinnear boldly and arrogantly told fans to judge him on his signings – well eight months later, Joe has now been well and truly judged.

As Kinnear heads off into the sunset (hopefully for the final time), the question that still remains for many is just why was Joe brought back and what really were his objectives?

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Structurally Newcastle were pretty sound prior to his arrival. Mike held the purse strings and made the decisions, with Derek Llambias running the club on a day-to-day basis for him. On the playing side, Graham Carr found the players and Pardew managed the team. Now, how well each of these men carried out their roles was a matter of opinion, what was clear however, is that operationally all bases were pretty much covered.

Why bring in a mad, old fossil to fill a seemingly unnecessary role? It makes no sense. Even if Newcastle did want someone in this role to help Pardew out after last season’s poor showing, why the hell choose Kinnear?

A Director of Football is usually someone with an outstanding knowledge of the world game, someone who works closely with the manager regarding what the team may need, and someone with the contacts and ability to go out and get them. A blind man on a galloping horse could see Kinnear was not competent enough to fulfil this role – and so it proved.

There are many who believe that JFK was brought in to do exactly as he has done – spend no money and sell prize assets. Come in and be paid handsomely to be the fall guy as he ‘inadvertently’ screws it up – whilst simultaneously making Mike Ashley millions.

After all, if Joe was that bad at his job, surely he should have been sacked?

The statement released by the club confirming Kinnear’s exit was also suspicious. Only twenty-nine words long, the release did nothing but confirm the departure. It offered no reasons, no explanation and offered not thanks to Joe for his efforts as many other similar statements have done in the past.

In my eyes the whole sorry debacle stinks. Whilst I do not know the real story behind the last eight months and strange appointment of Kinnear, I rule nothing out when it comes to Mike’s desire to make as much money from Newcastle United as possible.

Given the deafening silence that has long emanated from the club, we will probably never know the truth behind Kinnear’s reign of terror. Even if Joe does at some point lift the lid on his appointment, could anyone really believe a word he says??

What is for certain is that Joe Kinnear had no business whatsoever being in a position of such power at a club the size of Newcastle United; and whilst I am now more than happy that at long last this lunatic is now gone - the damage to our club has already been done. Our best player has now been sold and with no players signed permanently, the squad is in dire need of a massive overhaul in the summer.

Who is now brought in to oversee this massive summer at St. James’ Park is anyone’s guess.

Follow Jonny on Twitter, @JonnyAnderson11

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Joe 12:28 pm, 5-Feb-2014

Good article other than the part where you imply newcastle are a big club

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