On Sunday the 16th of June news broke that Joe Kinnear had been hired as Director of Football at Newcastle United. This news was broken not by the club, or an in the know journalist. No, in fact it was broken by the man himself. Presumably hours before he had even signed a contract. It took until Tuesday for the club to confirm it via a statement on the clubs’ website. As a fan I am used to the circus that is Newcastle United, it’s very rare we don’t dominate the back pages usually for some mess we have created, player orgy (common place now but remember, we did it here first), Joey Barton, Dennis wise and co, Kevin Keegan’s second coming then his resignation, the unfair dismissal of Chris Houghton, stadium naming rights, etc.
There is never a dull moment at Newcastle United, any success or sustained stability is evened out by clown like decision making and relegations. Even before I was born Newcastle was run like a fun fair and were known as a yo-yo club, with a revolving door of managers throughout the late 70s through to the early 90s.
The first time Joe Kinnear was brought in to replace the outgoing Kevin Keegan I was apprehensive, he was a manager whose last taste of success was a domestic double semi final with Wimbledon in 1997. He had then gone onto have a hand in the relegation of Luton town and Nottingham Forrest. Kinnear joined Newcastle and went onto win four of his 18 games in charge then left due to a recurrence of his heart problems. Our fears and apprehension of his appointment were perfectly founded and we were relegated that season. He now joins us for a second time, this time as Director of Football.
Is this a good role for him? He might not be up to the rigours of management anymore with its sports scientists, complicated tactics (which is almost a science in itself), superstar footballers, vast amounts of money. A Director of Football is someone who knows the game and can use his experience and extensive list of contacts to find players, which without him might not have been possible. Another role for a director of football is to allow an element of continuity for example Angelo Henrique at Porto. This might suit Kinnear more than maybe having a full time hands on role as manager. In the car crash interview given to TalkSport, the only truth among many fabrications was that the players he mentioned did in fact play for Wimbledon at some point in their career and did in fact work with Kinnear. The lines do get blurred somewhat whether he signed them or not, how much he paid for them and how effective they were for his Wimbledon side. There was a litany of half-truths, inaccurate statements, and downright lies during the interview – and these have been picked apart by journalists with consummate ease.
At Wimbledon the three players where he may have got some value from were Marcus Gayle, Dean Holdsworth and Oyvind Leonhardsen. They were brought in collectively for little under a million and a half and were sold on for seven to eight million. On this alone it’s hardly merit to be put in charge of player recruitment at a club as big as Newcastle, his CV says he unearthed three very average players over seven years. If that was the case then Steve Bruce may as well have been given the job. Even Alan Pardew’s record eclipses this and he has done it in two seasons. These players were brought in from the lower divisions and as the Premier league gets bigger and bigger it is becoming harder and harder for lower league players to make the step up hence why scouts and “directors of football” are relying more and more on players from overseas.
There is a place for a director of football at Newcastle and within the English game. The problem is Kinnear is a ridiculous appointment. If you look at clubs like Reading and West Brom which have had Directors of Football, they show that it can be successful if the right appointment is made. Liverpool shows what can happen if the wrong appointment is made. When I look at teams like Sunderland and Tottenham appointing proven directors of football with a good record in this role, it makes me wander who's decision making was behind Kinnears appointment.
Kinnear is a throwback to the by gone days of football. He has failed at every club he has been at since Wimbledon because unlike Alex Ferguson and Bobby Robson he couldn't evolve with the game, had a total inability to adapt and therefore couldn’t – and can’t - understand the modern game. The game left him behind like it has done so many others who refuse to embrace modern football. His media appearances so far have shown exactly what he is - someone who is out of touch and out of date and above all supremely arrogant. Mispronouncing players names, making things up, saying he is more intelligent than the Newcastle fans that doubt him. That statement in itself shows a severe lack of intelligence on his part.
He has come into Newcastle, upset the fans, the current management structure, and upset the players in particular Cabaye, Ben Arfa and Sammy Ameobi. I can see this ending badly and his comments he made in June 2012 hardly reassure Alan Pardew and Graham Carr "I would consider something like a director of football post. But I would do that for just one reason and that is to get myself back into full-time management. If I was a director of football and the manager was struggling and got the old tin-tack, I would tell them that I'd take over."
~John Robert Lavery
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