No warm Tyneside welcome for new Toon boss Kinnear

Sep 28 2008 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun

THE man brought in to sort out the chaos at Newcastle United didn’t have to wait long for his first taste of the shambles.

New caretaker-boss Joe Kinnear could have guessed his new job was going to be lonely, but even he seemed surprised when no one from the club showed up to meet him on his arrival at Newcastle Airport on Friday night.

Perhaps taking on board too literally the fans demands the Magpies manager should be “left alone to manage”, Kinnear had to hail a taxi to get him to his city centre hotel.

Watching the embarrassing 10-minute wait, an onlooker said: “I felt so sorry for him, it wasn’t exactly the warmest of welcomes.

“Kevin Keegan had thousands of fans singing his name when he came back, but it was a bit different for Joe.”

A second on-looker said: “Joe might not be the fans’ choice but he is a good bloke and didn’t deserve this. Everything about Newcastle United at the minute is a complete shambles, and this incident just sums it up.”

The short-term manager’s tough start at the club continued yesterday, even before the game kicked off.

BBC bosses were forced to apologise to viewers after Kinnear swore during an interview on yesterday’s Football Focus.

The interim boss, re-launching his football career at the age of 61, dropped the clanger via a live video link. Speaking about club owner Mike Ashley, Kinnear said: “He’s the one who’s cleared the debts, he’s the one who’s put the money in. He’s the one who’s got Newcastle out of the s**t.”

The comments came just one day after Alan Shearer said he knew nothing about Kinnear’s claims he is just keeping the seat warm for the former-striker and King Kev until the club is sold.

And the slip-ups didn’t end there. Kinnear, who candidly admitted he expects to be in charge for no more than eight games, will have to sit in the stands for two of them as he completes a touchline ban from his previous stint in management four years ago from his time at Nottingham Forest.

It stemmed from an incident at the end of Nottingham Forest’s clash with Gillingham in November 2004, just before he left the Midlands club.

Newcastle’s defeat to Blackburn Rovers yesterday marked quite an eventful 24 hours for Kinnear after he was named on Friday as Keegan’s successor.

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