Paully

Their PR department will do well to shift any half season tickets at Christmas! Their 1st 8 home games; 17 August Sunderland v Fulham 14 September Sunderland v Arsenal 28 September Sunderland v Liverpool 05 October Sunderland v Manchester United 26 October Sunderland v Newcastle United 09 November Sunderland v Manchester City 03 December Sunderland v Chelsea 07 December Sunderland v Tottenham Hotspur

Good luck to him - he always put in a good shift for us and was nowhere near as bad as some made out! No idea why he got as much stick!

Martin Samuel; If Kinnear is having a final say on transfers and is the public face of Newcastle, there needs to be more to him than meets the eye. And it can’t be fiction. By Martin Samuel PUBLISHED: 22:45, 18 June 2013 | UPDATED: 00:40, 19 June 2013 9 shares 0 View comments A very nice man, Bobby Gould. He sat in the studio at talkSPORT listening to Joe Kinnear take credit for some of the most value-for-money, insightful transfers in the history of the Premier League, and never said so much as excuse me, sunshine. ‘They say I haven’t had any experience in buying and selling players,’ jabbered Kinnear. ‘Sure I have — I bought Dean Holdsworth for 50 grand, sold him for £3million. I sold John Scales for £3m — he was a free transfer. I sold Robbie Earle for XYZ. I sold Marcus Gayle, Leonhardsen, Keith Curle, Micky Harford, John Hartson, Hans Segers. Most of them were free transfers.’ Do you know how many free transfers were actually in that list? None. Do you know who bought three of them? Bobby Gould. Among the best ones, too. John Scales for £70,000, plus Keith Curle and Hans Segers. Notorious: Joe Kinnear is renowned for his expletive-laden rants at officials and journalists in the past Notorious: Joe Kinnear is renowned for his expletive-laden rants at officials and journalists in the past More from Martin Samuel... Martin Samuel: Rose raises the bar to beat the burden of history on magical Merion Sunday17/06/13 . MARTIN SAMUEL: As Rocky's legacy lives on in Philadelphia, London waits on its return on the £9BILLION Olympics16/06/13 . MARTIN SAMUEL: Three games, three defeats. It's time for change. The Under 21s need a teacher, not a student... so surely Hoddle must take the reins11/06/13 . Martin Samuel: New era, but same old Jose! Don't be fooled by the quiet start, Mourinho is back for a scrap10/06/13 . MARTIN SAMUEL: England U21s would have been torn to shreds by Germany, Spain or Holland. The golden generation this ain't09/06/13 . Why nepotism was never going to work for me06/06/13 . MARTIN SAMUEL: Hodgson's Rooney gamble could leave the road to Rio in ruins...04/06/13 . MARTIN SAMUEL: Pellegrini will not emulate the long reign of Ferguson, Man City's attack bunny Soriano will make sure of that02/06/13 . VIEW FULL ARCHIVE. Kinnear wasn’t even at Wimbledon then. He was reserve manager when Ray Harford paid Port Vale £750,000 for Robbie Earle. And Earle wasn’t sold for X, Y or even Z, as Kinnear speculates. He wasn’t sold at all, in fact. Earle suffered a ruptured pancreas playing for Wimbledon reserves in 2000 and, later that year, retired. The strange thing is that Kinnear does not need to aggrandise his achievements at Wimbledon. Even without taking credit for Gould’s transfer acumen his time in south London remains the highlight on his c.v. Kinnear was reserve-team manager from 1989 and took over the first team in January 1992. Under his stewardship, Wimbledon finished sixth in 1993-94 and achieved significant top-10 finishes in other seasons despite playing their home matches at Crystal Palace. He stood down for health reasons in June 1999 and the next season Wimbledon were relegated from the Premier League, never to return. That club, in its previous format, does not even exist any more. So Kinnear has plenty to shout about without, basically, making stuff up. Holdsworth cost £650,000, not £50,000, from Brentford and far from most of Kinnear’s list of signings being free transfers, all cost money. Kinnear signed John Hartson for £7.5m, a club record, from West Ham United and when he left following relegation it was to join Coventry City on a pay-as-you-play deal. Terry Burton was Wimbledon manager by then. Kinnear made a decent return, £2.85m, on Holdsworth and Oyvind Leonhardsen, but both players cost £650,000. They were not plucked from obscurity. A lot of managers add a little gravy to their achievements, but not like this. Kinnear turns three Manager of the Month awards into the same number of Manager of the Year prizes (for the record he was Manager of the Year once) and heaven knows how he adds up his total appearances for Tottenham Hotspur. John Scales Hans Segers Really, Joe? Kinnear claimed to have signed both John Scales (left) and Hans Segers (right) while at Wimbledon Inflated: Kinnear claimed to have signed a number of Wimbledon players that were brought in by Bobby Gould Inflated: Kinnear claimed to have signed a number of Wimbledon players that were brought in by Bobby Gould Leading man: Kinnear claimed to have picked Dean Holdsworth from obscurity Leading man: Kinnear claimed to have picked Dean Holdsworth from obscurity He said he played over 400 games for the club, but records show 196 league appearances over 10 seasons, meaning he would have had to play more than 20 cup games each year to pass the 400 mark. That’s a lot of replays. The real total is 258. That’s not to be sniffed at, either. So why exaggerate? ‘I have been to various countries watching games,’ Owen Coyle, the new Wigan Athletic manager, soothed this week. Has he? Fiction: Robbie Earle retired while at Wimbledon and was never sold by Kinnear, as he claimed Fiction: Robbie Earle retired while at Wimbledon and was never sold by Kinnear, as he claimed We take his word for it. The same generosity wouldn’t be extended to Kinnear now. Coyle could be an aficionado of the European game immersed in the principles of the La Masia academy, or he may have stuck his head around the door once at Tenerife during a winter holiday. It is a matter of trust. Every utterance from Kinnear as director of football at Newcastle United, though, will be met with scepticism. Kinnear has been the victim of appalling snobbery for dropping a few aitches and a few F-bombs in the past, but this runs deeper. Favourite: Mike Ashley and Kinnear are good friends Favourite: Mike Ashley and Kinnear are good friends Kinnear: Which one is Simon Bird (North East based football writer for the Daily Mirror)? Bird: Me. Kinnear: You’re a c***. Bird: Thank you. Now we’ve all had that from Joe on occasions. During his time at Wimbledon we had a row that began in the car park at Selhurst Park, continued up several flights of stairs and ended with us bursting into the press room shouting at the top of our voices. His last expletive-strewn utterance was that he effing wouldn’t be effing answering any of my effing questions. I let a couple go and asked the third. He replied as if nothing had happened. He has never mentioned it since. That’s Joe. What it isn’t, however, is the model of a very modern director of football. It is hard to imagine the new raft of executives at Manchester City, for instance, opening a public discussion by calling a member of the press a c***, or being caught out over the pronunciation of names or matters of public record such as transfer fees and dates of arrival. Kinnear was a fine player. He served 10 years at Tottenham, won four cups — not five as he stated — and made 26 appearances for the Republic of Ireland. There is no reason he would not know a player. Indeed, Kinnear might be as well in with the greats of the game as he suggests. The point is, with his coarse outbursts and insulting struggles with foreign names, he does not fit the profile of the continental sophisticate naturally palling around with Arsene Wenger. The Premier League is a global competition. There is a difference between losing a sense of national identity with an influx of foreign staff, and employing a senior executive who risks diplomatic incident by calling players Kebab and Insomnia because he can’t be bothered to recall and pronounce Cabaye and N’Zogbia. Really? Kinnear mispronounced star man Yohan Cabaye's (right) name in a radio interview Really? Kinnear mispronounced star man Yohan Cabaye's (right) name in a radio interview Insomnia: Kinnear riled former Newcastle winger Charles N'Zogbia with a slip of his tongue Insomnia: Kinnear riled former Newcastle winger Charles N'Zogbia with a slip of his tongue Mike Ashley, the Newcastle owner, is believed to like Kinnear best of all his managers, but that is not enough. No doubt he enjoys the fact that he calls a spade a f****** shovel and journalists a bunch of, well, you know. Yet football is more complex now. The old-school ally can be your valued friend in the boardroom telling it like it is — Bobby Campbell is close to Roman Abramovich, for instance — but if Kinnear is having a final say on transfers and is the public face of Newcastle, there needs to be more to him than meets the eye. Much more. And it can’t be fiction. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2344117/Joe-Kinnear-prove-takes-Newcastle--MARTIN-SAMUEL.html#ixzz2WdIiBGro Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Michael Martin is on Sky radio at 2.15pm

Go on Michael Martin!

Kinnear is on Talksport at 10pm and true faith's Michael Martin is on afterwards as per his text (Michael's not Joe's!)!

Caulkin; It had almost reached the point where you could laugh about it. Almost. The grin might have been forced and the voice strained, but you could almost bear to retell the tales, dragging out the stories like a grizzled war correspondent. Almost. Almost, but not quite. Because away from the daftness and the grammatical foibles and the bizarre flights of fantasy, Joe Kinnear and Newcastle United should only be a source of the darkest humour. Let us not skirt the issue. Let us not play games with language or deal in half-truths or politics. Let us not suggest you read between the lines. Let us be as bold and as brash as Mike Ashley in relation to the owner’s most contentious decisions at St James’ Park. Let us say this: if Joe Kinnear is the answer, the only possible question is “who would you least like to be associated with Newcastle, not including Dennis Wise?” There is one thing that people always get wrong when I tell them about my job. There is plenty they get right, such as “you lucky bugger, being paid to watch football”. But the thing they get wrong when I explain that I’m based in the North East is when they say “never dull up there, is it? There’s always something to write about. You must love it!” Sometimes they throw in an extra “love it” just to sound like Kevin Keegan. They soon shut up when they see my 1000-yard stare and the tremor of a twitch in the corner of my eyes. Because while I love the North East and while I love our football, I don’t love it when North East football is lampooned. In fact, I hate that. And it is worse than dull when the subjects you write about are corrosion and failure and underachievement. It gnaws at the soul. There has been no season more toxic, less pleasant to record, more outrageous or shaming than Newcastle’s in 2008-09, when a great club was taken to its knees by a compendium of mismanagement, muddled thinking and recklessness. And in the midst of it all was Joe Kinnear, swearing and dissembling, a key player in the farce, sitting in the same seat that Sir Bobby Robson once sat in. I looked up an old interview I conducted with Sir Bobby to publicise a book about Newcastle, the club and the city, which we had worked on together. It was not too long after Kinnear had called journalists “c****” and “so f****** slimy” and promised that nobody was “going to f*** me off or frighten me in any manner,” because he was here “for a simple chance to f****** prove myself.” “How do headmasters or educationalists in Newcastle, reading that, explain it to schoolchildren?” Sir Bobby said in response. “I think it’s more likely to encourage people to take up rugby rather than football. “It came at a time when people have been desperate for reasons to be proud of their club and while some people might think journalists deserve what they get, my belief is it took the club down another peg or two. A manager of Newcastle speaking like that? It should never happen. It’s a job of dignity, integrity and responsibility. I hope Joe’s successful, but it wasn’t the right way to behave.” He reflected on Kinnear’s arrival, Keegan’s departure, the presence of Wise, the jumble of roles, players being signed without the manager’s knowledge and being told to look them up on YouTube, the bafflement and betrayal of supporters. “There are all sorts of words you could use to describe what’s happened – and some have been vitriolic – but the one I’d use to express what I feel about the club is sadness,” Robson said. “It’s not just disappointing or outrageous or obnoxious, it’s just sad how a big, magnificent club like it is, could have reached this point.” Kinnear’s press conferences were part of that. They weren’t entertaining. They were ludicrous. There was confusion and obfuscation about the length of his contract, a potential takeover: “I worked it out that I would be in charge for between six and eight games. But (Mike Ashley) assures me that they have a buyer and the consortium coming in have Kevin Keegan lined up and possibly Alan Shearer. I’m well aware of the situation. Good luck to Kevin if he’s coming back in. He’s the fans choice and you know what the fans are like, they call the tune in many respects.” Didn’t happen. There was to be a D-Day meeting with Ashley about the sale of the club: “I’ll find out where we stand. It’ll certainly clear the air for everybody – me, the players, the supporters and everyone associated with the club.” Never happened. There were plans for the transfer window: “One (player) is with Roma and he is not in the team at the moment and the other is a player who has already scored against us this season. I know their agents and what they would be is loan deals from January until the end of the season.” Didn’t happen. After the obscenity, there was a press call, before a match with Tottenham Hotspur, who he had played for with some distinction, when Kinnear burst into song: “In Dublin’s fair city, Where the boys are so pretty, We first set our eyes on big Joe Kinnear, As he wheeled his wheelbarrow, Through the streets wide and narrow, Crying ‘Tottenham! Tottenham’!” Might have happened, no less bemusing. And then there was the daddy of them all, when a nugget of information and a line I was desperate to write (“If Joe Kinnear thought he had a mountain to climb when he was manager of Nepal …”) came out on a rare quiet day. So, big Joe Kinnear. Tell us about Nepal. “I was in Nepal for two years as their national coach. I was there with Crown Prince Dipendra who was to be their future prince (he meant king). It was a real experience for me. I was just starting out as a coach, I was in Dubai also for two years. Nepal was to coach the national team, the contract was good, financially it was good. He was the King’s son, he had to marry some other bird. I had better be careful here or I will be having a political war. “He (the Crown Prince) was one of my closest friends, he was head of their FA. I was there when the whole of the royal family was killed. He was my best friend, so he used to come back to London, we would meet and go to matches. When I went back over there, he was the guy I answered to. “There were two castes out there. He was forced to marry another girl but he didn’t want to. He was ordered by his parents to marry her when that was the last thing he really wanted to do. He wanted to marry someone else but he couldn’t … like the usual crap. So what did he do? He killed them all and then blew his own brains out.” What!? Really!? “I never really felt like my life was at risk,” he said. “It came out of the blue when it happened. I got out of there about three days after and I have never been back.” Dynamite! Utterly irrelevant to anything, but who cares, it was a great story and it least it wasn’t D-Day meetings or contracts or players being lined up or being called a c*** or so f****** slimy. Until, as it was my turn to transcribe the press conference quotes that day and Tibet had been my idea, I thought I’d do a bit of research. Joe Kinnear managed Nepal in 1987. Dipendra of Nepal allegedly killed his family on June 1 2001. In 2001, Joe Kinnear was manager of Luton Town. See. That’s almost funny – almost – although I’m struggling to raise a smile today. There was no role for Kinnear at Newcastle in 2008. There was no logic to it. He was close to Ashley, apparently, and evidently still is. In a season of humiliation, he was a magnet for more of it. He won five of 26 matches. He described a referee as “Mickey Mouse”, was sent off from the touchline, called Charles N’Zogbia “Charles Insomnia” and helped untether a flailing club. He tarnished a great institution. There is no role for Kinnear at Newcastle in 2013. There is no logic to it. If there is a need for a new approach to transfers, as Kinnear has implied, then a man who has not been involved in frontline football for four years and was barely involved then, is not it. If there is a need for anything, the only thing that springs to mind is Ashley undermining Alan Pardew. They’re having a laugh. Almost.

Mate just sent this - Jesus He leaves a trail of destruction when he departs clubs, in whatever format Wimbledon - Left in 1999, Wimbledon relegated in the following season – 2000, Wimbledon moved and ceased to exist in 2003 Oxford - Left in 2001, Oxford relegated at the end of that season – 2001, never recovered and relegated from league in 2006 Luton - Left in 2003, Luton relegated in 2006, again in 2007 and relegated from the league in 2008 Notts Forest - Left in 2004, Forest relegated at the end of the season Newcastle - Left in 2009, Newcastle relegated at the end of the season You can’t lay everything at his doormat but the record is pretty striking nonetheless.

Blackpool away is apparently Sunday 28th July

Apologies if it's already been posted! Absolutely superb! http://eaglesthatlooklikearsenewenger.tumblr.com/

KEVIN Keegan has refused to rule out a third spell as Newcastle United boss. But the former Magpies manager has insisted it will never happen as long as Mike Ashley remains the owner. When asked if he would consider a third stint as Toon boss, Keegan, who has spent the last four years working as a lead pundit for ESPN, said: “I think the answer to that is, you never know. “Football clubs are all about people. “When Sir John Hall rang me and said ‘The two people who can save this club are the ones talking to each other now’, you thought ‘wow’. “That is a simple thing to say, but actually that’s all you need. “People say ‘Never go back’. “But I did go back.” Keegan though launched a scathing attack on the club’s current regime, and vowed that he will have no interest in the club until the owner has gone. “The Newcastle club now has no interest on that side, the fans, the team and we talk about it a lot through all my friends and the ex-players I know. “Until they (owner Ashley and chairman Derek Llambias) leave that football club, it has no interest for me. “They are not that football club. They are just custodians who are in for a few years. “It might be five, 10 or six, but Newcastle United will go on after Mike Ashley.” In an interview with Sky Sports, Keegan outlined how he had at first been excited about working for Ashley. He said: “I got a phone call from Terry Mac (McDermott), I was up in Glasgow and he said ‘They’d like to talk to you’. “I went down to talk to them. I quite liked Mike Ashley. “I though ‘Yeah, this could be good’. “But no it was a nightmare, an absolute living nightmare.” The 62-year-old resigned as boss after an argument over transfers. He later won £2m in compensation having launched a claim in court for what was thought to be £25m. That angered many fans, but Keegan insists his fight was against the regime not the club. “In the end it isn’t easy to win a court case or take a club to court,” he added. “But I didn’t see it as being Newcastle, I saw it as Mike Ashley, Dennis Wise, a guy called Jimenez and Derek Llambias.”

I could listen to him all day! His passion and enthusiasm for NUFC and the city is 2nd to none. He loves the fans. The Shearer signing was the easiest he made! He had met Taggart the previous day and the deal was done in 20 minutes! Shearer's only question was to wear the number 9! We had to pay the £15m up front plus a levy of 12 %. The flotation and people behind the scenes changing him was the reason he left. He didn't like the England job at all. On the 2nd spell as manager - "I met Ashley - thought this could be good but no, it was a nightmare" It's fair to say he detests him along with Wise, Llambias and Jiminez. "I wasn't taking the club to court it was those lot and it was something I didn't like to do" Lot of dishonesty and bull about bidding for players He mentioned he reads forums! 2 cracking interviews them!

Part 2 is 11pm tonight on Sky Sports 2

Titsup speaks! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/sunderland/10099786/Titus-Bramble-blasts-Sunderland-manager-Paolo-Di-Canio-he-thinks-he-knows-everything-but-he-has-a-lot-to-learn.html

Bobby did warn somebody, Mourinho phoned Bobby and told him so Bobby warned somebody at the club. Just beat me to it!

I'm sure Mourinho told SBR that - think it was also in SBR's Mail on Sunday column!

I wish he'd stayed at Blackburn too. He's the reason we started our slide towards relegation. Yep - totally correct there mate!

The stupid deluded tosser is at it again! Erm, you were on the verge of getting sacked at Blackburn! Prick! £50 million spunked to take a team that finished 5th into a relegation battle! http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/10458455._/

Well said mate. It absolutely baffles me how any NUFC fan can abuse KK. If he had of turned down SJH's call in 1992 then we might be having our Derby with Gateshead. You just have to look at the state of the club when he took over to what it is now. The ground, the facilities, the training ground, the players all stems from him as manager and SJH's coin. To hear his passion still now for the club and the city was superb - roll on part 2 next week! 100000% NUFC legend.

Eh? There is nothing remotely good about Pardew whatsoever. He has nowt that KK lacks, not a thing. Doesn't quit jobs. Accepts hierarchy. Understands the modern football club. Does a lot of preparation. Has a more defensive view point. Keegan quite clearly lacks the drive and determination needed to be a top class manager, he also lacks being able to do what he's told or understanding the role of a modern manager. He's a great motivator who loves attacking football but can't put his ego aside for the sake of a club and doesn't have any attention to detail while isn't open to any ideas which he didn't practise in the 80s. 1 - Give Pardew a good enough reason to resign and he would as would any manager. KK had legitimate reasons to resign every time he did resign. 2 - KK accepted SJH, Fletcher etc. He accepted the FA, Al Fayed, Man City's board of directors. What he didn't accept at NUFC was being undermined and lied to and a whole load of broken promises. KK has shown he is more than able to work with a hierarchy, if that hierarchy is the right one. I think he could work with Carr, easily, for example. Last season he basically said during one of our games on ESP that Pardew had been quite lucky getting players like Sissoko, Ben Arfa etc. bought for him. At the time I took that as him taking a bitter swipe at Ashley and co for getting him the likes of Xisco and that other player whose name escapes me, while Pardew gets the cream basically. I don't think even KK would turn down good players being bought for him though. Shearer was effectively bought for him after all. When its the likes of Xisco though or some f***er off Youtube.... KK IMO could work for this club right now, under Ashley, Llambias and Carr in this set-up, providing he knew exactly what was what. 3 - Pardew doesn't understand NUFC never mind modern football. His whole approach to football flies against the whole ethos of the club in terms of the fans and its history and indeed even the players we bring to the club. There is nothing to understand, he just goes along with things. Anyone can do that. 4 - So what? It means nowt if it doesn't translate into success. Where Pardew puts in a lot of preparation time regarding statistics and other s***, KK would be out there on the training pitch putting the hours into passing, movement, skill, flair etc. 5 - The best form of defence is attack... we conceded a record number of goals for us this season. Under KK when we lost the title we conceded something like a handful of goals less than Man Utd who were winning games right left and centre 1-0, most notably at SJP which probably decided the fate of the title that season. This when we were regarded as reckless and cavalier. I'd wager a KK side would concede less than a Pardew side, any day of the week. Btw, KK when he took over us back in the early 90s was one of a new breed, he helped to change the the role of the manager. At that time the manager was the trainer and a part-time scout. KK was everything to us. He was the chief negotiator, the chief scout, he trained the team, he coached them, he played a part in every area of the club, he even had a say on the design of our shirts. He was a new hands on new breed. Ironically its going back to how it used to be where the manager is basically the trainer and part-time scout and that for me is the best model because of just how crappy most managers are in the transfer market, scouting players etc. etc. Imagine if Pardew could pick and choose who he wanted and just how much he'd blow on s****. Souness all over again I bet. But there are some rare exceptions and KK is and always would be someone I personally would trust to spend money on a player because the man not only has an eye for talent but he has the individual tools to develop that talent and turn it into gold. He did it with Lee, Cole etc. He turned a newly promoted side that cost under 10m quid at a time when the Hammers, Derby etc were spending more to get into the PL into a 3rd place side. The man does have an ego but if it was that big, he wouldn't have walked out on us. He would have stayed around picking up the reported 3m a year salary, his ego constantly telling him he can work magic regardless. The sad truth of it all is that KK is too honest and too decent a man for football, or the way football is now. He doesn't care about finances or prozone, he cares about the fans and his players, he cares about football. KK may not have what it takes to say win the league with a side or to compete for the CL trophy (how many do) but he wipes the floor with someone like Pardew, Hughes, Bruce and half the other s*** in the division. KK in charge of this side... top 6 and attacking football without a doubt and someone like Ben Arfa scoring and creating bucket loads. "GET BACK HATEM" "NOT THERE HATEM" Picture KK waving Oba forwards frantically to take on his man... Different kettle of fish altogether. Without reading this, I know it's going to be a brilliant post! I love HTT's KK patter!

Jesus wept Even if he did, I'm fairly sure it wasn't related to KK's disastrous second coming. I'm not arguing with a stand up comic so that's me away

Jesus wept

Repeated today and well worth a look; 8am SS3 12pm SS2 3.30pm SS1

Didn't realise Juninho was there!

Good luck to a mate whose team Reading United are about to play against New York Red Bulls in the cup! The ground looks canny by his photos!