Toon more years for uncle Joe?

Posted on August 5th, 2009 | 13 Comments |

Will Toon walking in a Kinnear wonderland once again?
Will Toon be walking in a Kinnear wonderland once again?
In an interview with the BBC’s ‘Radio Five Live’, Joe Kinnear has sensationally claimed that Mike Ashley has offered him another two year contract at the club, and added that he is “mulling it over”. He also added that it would still take another three months to fully recover from his triple heart bypass, performed after he complained of severe hypertensive symptoms during last season’s visit to West Bromwich Albion. Joe said:

“I have been offered a two-year contract and it is something I am mulling over at the present time.

“I have told Mike I am not going to go back to football for at least another three months and we will look at the situation then.

“I told him I would refuse to go back for pre-season friendlies as I was not up to it for medical reasons.

“I needed to take time out and re-assess the situation and take it from there. But obviously in another three months the picture might be completely different.

“In the meantime if Newcastle feel the need to go and get another manager then so be it.”

If correct, this would add yet another sub-plot to the endless soap opera that is Newcastle United, and shine a significant light on Mike Ashley’s current attempts to sell the club, which is currently being brokered by Keith Harris of investment bank, Seymour Pierce. If the sale is proceeding as planned, and two or more interested parties are in the process of attempting to clinch a deal with distressed seller, Ashley, then this would indeed seem to be a strange move.

Though an admirer of Kinnear’s widely underestimed efforts to rescue our ailing club last season, this writer is realistic enough to think that Kinnear would hardly be the first choice of any prospective purchasers, and that such an offer could potentially throw a spanner in the works of any ongoing deal, unless it was with the full agreement of a new buyer. It would also seem to challenge theories that Ashley refused to offer undoubted fan’s favourite, Alan Shearer, a contract to releive new owners of the burden of an incumbent manager when they may want a different choice.

Then again, Shearer has said little of any substance on the matter apart from that he was managing until the end of last season, and that was it. He will almost certainly be subject to non-disclosure agreements too, and may be seen as something of a ‘poison chalice’ in any future disputes due to his status with the Tyneside faithful. After all, it is highly doubtful that they would want a repeat of the Keegan fiasco.

Of course, Shearer has recently declared that he will now be resuming his cosy position on the ‘Match of the Day’ pundit’s sofa next season, rather than the somewhat less comfortable hotseat in the dugout of Saint James’s Park.

There has also been the recent supposed embargo on transfers, If this was indeed true, then it ended with news of a deal to sell Obafemi Martin’s to surprise German Bundesliga champions, Wolfsburg.

What in God’s name is going on? Is there no deal for the club anytime soon, or has a deal already been worked out, with Ashley working in co-operation with the new owners? Keith Harris in a recent interview (also for Five Live) suggested that a deal could be hammered out by the “end of the month”. Time will tell.

Only in Newcastle. I’m a Toon fan, get me oot of hya! etc…

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by workyticket in category: Alan Shearer and Joe Kinnear and Keith Harris and Mike Ashley and NUFC gossip and speculation and NUFC sale saga and Thoughts and reflections and Workyticket , with tags: , , , , , ,
Comment on this post

13 Responses

  2. “What in God’s name is going on?”

    Quite.

    Personally I don’t fancy Kinnear as the man to help restructure the club and take things forward. I doubt any owner but Ashley would either.

    I’m not saying he couldn’t have saved us from relegation – in fact had he remained well he might have done – but he’s just not Newcastle’s ‘future’ for me.

    Curbishley would, I believe, be a better choice out of the names mentioned in press reports (assuming Shearer isn’t in the reckoning). There are any number of decent managers of course but a lot of them won’t be interested in taking the Newcastle job under Ashley, particularly whilst we’re a Championship side.

  4. beyethegreat says:
    August 5, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    “hugh i like the idea of curbs”

    Curbs really is a ‘Cockney’ though. He’d be murdered as soon as we suffered a dip in form, and there would be dips in form too. It could take years to get the club fully back on it’s feet.

  5. I see that the Bassong backlash has already started, all on the back of some piffle in the gutter press. I wouldn’t blame him if he did want to get out of our wretched club, which he probably does ASAP.

  6. Curbishley: yes.

    Joe: No thanks.

    Surely, even now as the club lies lower than the proverbial Snake’s belly, we can attract a Manager with a bit more class and nous than Simon Bird’s favourite.

    I can live without being fed bullshit on a daily basis and abysmal football from that chancer. Apparently he was on a great run before he took ill? Really, Joe? Have a look at the results leading up to the West Brom game.

    We don’t need a Messiah, nor we need a mid 90’s never-was either. Darren Ferguson or Alan Irvine anyone?

  7. hugh i like the idea of curbs”

    Curbs really is a ‘Cockney’ though. He’d be murdered as soon as we suffered a dip in form, and there would be dips in form too. It could take years to get the club fully back on it’s feet.

    i dont think it will matter that he is cockney but as you said dips in form will happen fans will backlash but hopefully the owner will stay strong people will have learned something

  8. “Curbs really is a ‘Cockney’ though. He’d be murdered as soon as we suffered a dip in form, and there would be dips in form too. It could take years to get the club fully back on it’s feet.”

    =======

    Worky, so what?

    If I was owner I’d be appointing the manager I (and my appointed team of advisors, including a football-savvy Chairman) thought would do the best job for the club regardless of where he was from. I’d be employing him for 3-5 years and tell him up front the finances he had available and that the only thing that would make me relieve him of his post would be a serious relegation threat.

    The fans could moan and complain all they liked but, as long as I was confident in my manager, I’d expect him to come through in the end and eventually win the fans round, even if it took time. In the interim I’d just have to bear the brunt of any fan backlash.

    On the other hand I’d ensure the club communicated well with the fans and kept them informed of my thinking on things like my choice of manager. I’d listen to their feedback, decide whether or not it had any merit and then make my own decision, which would be in the best long-term interests of the club.

    To be honest I think most decent owners would be like that. Once the fans begin to trust the owner and the Chairman and see the results of their work, the backlashes would fade.

  10. Hugh de Payen says:
    August 5, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    “Worky, so what?”

    I agree, Hugh, but I don’t quite understand part of your comment. You say that new owners should let the fans “moan and complain all they like”, but you go on to say that if you were owner, you would listen to the feedback of the fans. Is it one or the other?

    What if the new owners installed Curbishley, the start wasn’t that promising, and the fans say “burn the Cockney scum, we demand Shearer!”. Psychology is very important in sport, as it is everywhere. If the fans started booing, singing Shearer songs etc, the performances on the pitch will inevitably suffer to some degree, then the media will jump in with constant tales of conflict etc. This will wind up the fans even more, and the whole negative feedback loop will just start all over again.

    We need to excise the tumour within our club before we progress in a realistic manner, otherwise we will just go around in the same circle all over again.

    I was reading this too. Once again though, there’s no evidence whatsoever to substantiate it.

    Mike Ashley told to accept Barry Moat bid for Newcastle.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article6740830.ece

  12. Worky,

    “You say that new owners should let the fans “moan and complain all they like”, but you go on to say that if you were owner, you would listen to the feedback of the fans. Is it one or the other?”

    Both. I’d listen to what they’re complaining about, see if it had any merit, make my decision base on the long-term good of the club and then stick to it. I’d explain my decision to the fans and further moaning and complaining on that subject would be ignored.

    “We need to excise the tumour within our club before we progress in a realistic manner, otherwise we will just go around in the same circle all over again.”

    Yes, we do need to excise the tumour. Other than having complaining fans shot, the only way I can see that being done is through strong leadership from the top. Yes it might be painful and a new owner might have to put up with some grief for a while but I believe that the way to excise the tumour is for a new owner to prove themselves over time.

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