Joe Kinnear is back at Newcastle, this time as the club’s director of football.
The 66 year old former manager of the Magpies signed a three year deal that will see him oversee the club’s style of football and handle player recruitment and transfers. Amidst supporters’ fears that he may be inching in to replace Mike Ashley, Kinnear has insisted that he will be working with Ashley and not taking his place.
Kinnear managed Newcastle during the 2008-09 season but left the position after suffering a heart attack. But Kinnear insists that he’s healthy and ready to go now. “I am as fit as a fiddle now,” Kinnear said. “I am in the best physical shape that I have ever been and I have been waiting for the opportunity.”
Many Newcastle supporters are up in arms over the hiring, believing that the man they called ‘Mr. Long Ball’ was one of the worst Newcastle managers of all time, having put the club in a horrible position that led to their relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2008-09 season.
Fortunately, this time around Kinnear insists his role will be limited to player scouting. Explaining that he has “a bright head,” Kinnear believes that he can bring in the right players to make Newcastle a successful side. Kinnear explained:
Anticipating the fears of supporters, Kinnear also made clear that he has “no other agenda” and that “if I see players at the club right now and I believe they are not good enough to be at Newcastle then I intend to move them on.”
It will be interesting to see whether Kinnear supports the French Revolution at Newcastle or whether he looks to rebuild the club around the type of players that epitomize his affinity for the hoof-it game that he imposed during his first tenure at St. James’ Park.
