Joe’s getting back where he belongs
Oct 17 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
Fourth officials beware: the former manager of the “Crazy Gang” will be back on the Premier League touchlines on Monday – and he’s still a “lunatic”. Stuart Rayner reports
REPLACING the man behind “The Entertainers”, Joe Kinnear always had a tough ask. But in his own way, Newcastle United’s interim manager has been every bit as entertaining as his predecessor, Kevin Keegan.
Whether smashing his mobile phone on the Goodison Park terraces in frustration, trying to sneak into the tunnel to scream instructions or unleashing a colourful diatribe against the journalists who crossed him, life under the former Wimbledon manager has been anything but dull.
Kinnear is far from just a circus act, however. The self-styled “lunatic” is on a short-term mission to rebuild a football reputation that had almost been forgotten and so far, it is so good. The ex-Republic of Ireland defender is realistic enough to know his time at St James’s Park will probably be short-lived.
Even if the sharp shock treatment he gives United is insufficient to divert the gaze of the club’s next – foreign – owners from ideas of “sexier” big-name managers (Ruud Gullit anyone?), he at least hopes other chairmen take note.
Kinnear used to be talked of as a future boss of his old club, Tottenham Hotspur, and his country until two heart attacks.
“It is what I do for myself when I am here, that is how I see it, and what I can do for Newcastle,” he reflects. “What I can do is get my respect back in the business, do the best I can, and focus on winning.
“I am desperate to win on Monday (at home to Manchester City). I do not know what my future holds but if I do exceptionally well and get a decent result, who is to know what is just around the corner? Maybe another club may give me an opportunity if that (the appointment of different manager) is going to happen when a new owner comes in.”
When Kinnear was installed most Magpies supporters could barely contain their apathy. By the time of Newcastle’s last game, at Everton – where United won their first point since August 23 – his name was sung from the away section.
Whisper it quietly, but when Kinnear makes his first appearance on the Gallowgate touchline on Monday (after completing a dugout ban), there is every chance of a generous ovation.
“Getting a round of applause would probably indicate the fans have respect for me and perhaps I am not doing as bad a job as first thought,” he says of the prospect. “Maybe I am gradually getting them over to my way of thinking. I am not saying I am but maybe I am. Maybe they are coming to terms that I am totally a football man – a bit of a lunatic at times, but I can’t change to be honest.”
Nearly four years since Kinnear was last in a dug-out, it is a return he is looking forward to.
“Yeah, I am,” he admits. “I have been in the stand a few times in my career. It’s not the first time I have been banned. It is frustrating up there, especially with those mobile phones. It was frustrating up there, shouting through the phone. ‘I want to move him, left, right, can’t you hear me?’
“I have done it all my life, standing on touchlines, I will be focused on changing things, willing the players on. I’ll probably be pushed back onto my bench around 40 times by some sort of official.
“It is the best place to be. I am one of those managers who acts quickly if I see something going wrong on the pitch. I will not just sit there and hope it changes itself.”
Veteran Nicky Butt, though, is threatening to ruin Kinnear’s reputation. “He’s given us a bit of stability,” Butt said. “He’s not been shouting, he’s stood at the side in training and taken it all in and got to know the players.”
