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Steven Howard - The Sun


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JOE KINNEAR has 80 stitches inside his chest and a scar that runs from his neck to his toes.

 

The triple heart bypass the Newcastle manager underwent last month also required surgeons to saw into his chest, take arteries out of one of his legs and deflate and reinflate his lungs.

 

 

He was also fitted with a pacemaker.

 

 

Yet he still hopes to be fit enough to take charge of the Newcastle team at Tottenham on April 18.

 

 

Kinnear is 62. Ten years ago, he stood down as Wimbledon manager three months after a ‘mild’ heart attack.

 

 

Irrespective of the wonders of modern medicine — and Kinnear’s obvious desire to carry on — this sounds like madness.

 

 

Football management is one of the most stressful occupations around — even for fit men in their forties.

 

 

To even contemplate allowing Kinnear anywhere near a touchline with Newcastle fighting a full-blooded, head-on relegation battle, where player-management relations reach boiling point sounds gross irresponsibility.

 

 

One can only hope the current rumour doing the rounds on Tyneside is true.

 

 

That, if Newcastle stay up, then Kinnear will earn a bonus of around £500,000 — irrespective of whether he returns to the club or not.

 

 

Surely, common sense tells us this is a man who should go nowhere near the club for the rest of the season.

 

 

And, for his own well-being, probably never near any club in future — even if he has aspirations of replacing Dennis Wise, allegedly not as close to owner Mike Ashley as he once was, as director of football.

 

 

Common sense also decrees Ashley should have appointed a stand-in of some pedigree like Terry Venables when Kinnear was first taken ill.

 

 

It was obvious the club was heading in only one direction after just five wins in 20 games under Kinnear.

 

 

But then it’s been a series of schoolboy errors ever since Ashley bought the club inside four days — unfortunately failing to do due diligence and only later discovering the club owed £30million more than he thought.

 

 

The biggest failure of a man who knew nothing about running a football club was to surround himself with staff who would not have got similar positions at any other leading club.

 

 

And then appointing and losing just about the only one who would — Kevin Keegan. The same Keegan who is looking for £8m in severance pay.

 

 

Now the club is lumbered with dead wood like day-dreaming managing director Derek Llambias, who announced last month that relegation was “inconceivable”, and a relatively inexperienced director of football in Wise, who decided the woeful Fabrizio Coloccini was worth £10m.

 

 

Currently in charge of the team are Chris Hughton — a Tottenham cast-off who admits he is basically a coach — and Colin Calderwood, who was sacked by Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day.

 

 

And then there was Kinnear, one of the most bizarre appointments in Premier League history when he was named Keegan’s successor after being out of work for four years.

 

 

The result is Newcastle supporters are staring at the increasing likelihood of watching second-tier football for the first time in 16 years.

 

 

Much of it down to Ashley’s lack of leadership and what appears to be his initial gullibility in allowing Kinnear to talk him into the job.

 

 

Did he, for example, even know of the Irishman’s health record?

 

 

Now in the bottom three, Newcastle’s remaining games are Chelsea (h), Stoke (a), Spurs (a), Portsmouth (h), Liverpool (a), Boro (h), Fulham (h) and Villa (a).

 

 

 

 

Should they go down, they face a stampede for the exits from players such as Steven Taylor, Sebastien Bassong, Habib Beye, Damien Duff, Alan Smith and Obafemi Martins.

 

 

At the head of the queue will be Michael Owen, the £102,000-a-week, bit-part player who has cost £45m in wages, transfer fees and national ins-urance. Starting just 34 per cent of games, his 30 goals have cost £1.5m each.

 

 

And who will come in their place to resurrect a club that, irrespective of parachute payments, cannot afford to be out of the top tier for much longer than a season?

 

 

And what of Ashley? If he cannot sell a Premier League club, what chance has he with a Championship one?

 

 

The city of Newcastle has invested £250m in cultural attractions over the last 10 years. There’s the Sage Gateshead, the music centre designed by Lord Foster, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and the Theatre Royal.

 

 

Then there’s the greatest landmark of all: Newcastle United Football Club.

 

 

It may not attract too many high-brow art and opera-lovers but its appeal to Newcastle’s historic, grass-roots community is such that 50,000 fans out of a total population of 271,000 turned up for their last home match.

 

 

Criminally, it’s been allowed to go to seed

 

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Guest Phil K

I don't often agree with this bloke, but sheer insanity is what it is.

Ashley is destroying Newcastle to assist one failed football manager.

He seems frightened of the rags making him out as a baddie for dumping Kinnear on his sickbed

Instead he's pushing the team and the fans into a COFFIN.

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It is absolutely insane like, that's what the word is - insane. Irrespective of his actual ability, the bloke could die on the touchline ffs. That should be an instant no-go area. If players can't pass medicals, how the hell would this alleged manager ever do so?

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It is absolutely insane like, that's what the word is - insane. Irrespective of his actual ability, the bloke could die on the touchline ffs. That should be an instant no-go area. If players can't pass medicals, how the hell would this alleged manager ever do so?

 

surely to fuck the LMA will have a medical check in place?  or the FA? 

 

EDIT: or the clubs insurance company

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you'd have to assume jfk's doctor/ his famliy would be dead set against him returning to any pressurised job like the newcastle manager's one, even as much as jfk would want to defy them, and it beggars belief that ashley et al still want to bring him back. jfk might have balls of steel but i hope for his and his famliy's sake that he retires and enjoys his retirement

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Guest Mucky01

Wow good article in the Sun!

 

pennies seem to be be dropping in the media:

 

“But then it’s been a series of schoolboy errors ever since Ashley bought the club.....”

 

“The biggest failure of a man who knew nothing about running a football club was to surround himself with staff who would not have got similar positions at any other leading club.”

 

“Now the club is lumbered with dead wood like day-dreaming managing director Derek Llambias.....”

 

“Currently in charge of the team are Chris Hughton — a Tottenham cast-off who admits he is basically a coach — and Colin Calderwood, who was sacked by Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day.

 

And then there was Kinnear, one of the most bizarre appointments in Premier League history when he was named Keegan’s successor after being out of work for four years.”

 

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I am amazed Ashley hasn't attracted more criticism from the national media till now. The situation is absolutely disgusting that we are waiting for a 62 yr old heart patient to get off his sick bed to take charge of one of England's biggest clubs in a relegation battle. It beggars belief tbh.

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I am amazed Ashley hasn't attracted more criticism from the national media till now. The situation is absolutely disgusting that we are waiting for a 62 yr old heart patient to get off his sick bed to take charge of one of England's biggest clubs in a relegation battle. It beggars belief tbh.

 

i'm not

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Its like a horrible, horrible nightmare that I can't wake up from....

 

It is just awful and to think it will/could get a shit load worse over the next 2 months.

I can see if being bad for years. I really cant think how long it might take us to recover from this mis-management.

Ashley is never going to be able to sell us so I can see us being under his "guidance" for a few years yet

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Its like a horrible, horrible nightmare that I can't wake up from....

 

It is just awful and to think it will/could get a shit load worse over the next 2 months.

I can see if being bad for years. I really cant think how long it might take us to recover from this mis-management.

Ashley is never going to be able to sell us so I can see us being under his "guidance" for a few years yet

 

We would probably end up in league one. He will draw up a plan for the Championship which will fail as he is guaranteed to underestimate the league. He will prob keep Kinnear or heir some other has been who will probably do shit but Ashley will see him as the next England manager.

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Its like a horrible, horrible nightmare that I can't wake up from....

 

It is just awful and to think it will/could get a shit load worse over the next 2 months.

I can see if being bad for years. I really cant think how long it might take us to recover from this mis-management.

Ashley is never going to be able to sell us so I can see us being under his "guidance" for a few years yet

 

might come down to a FS style good luck appointment (uncle bobby)

 

we're going down, i've said so for a long long time but there's nothing to say a wise crony like poyet might not turn out to be fucking brilliant is there?

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Guest Mucky01

I am amazed Ashley hasn't attracted more criticism from the national media till now. The situation is absolutely disgusting that we are waiting for a 62 yr old heart patient to get off his sick bed to take charge of one of England's biggest clubs in a relegation battle. It beggars belief tbh.

 

it’s not just Kinnear recovering from major surgery that’s the problem, it’s how he got the job in the first place!

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Guest Phil K

Leeds blew up because of panic stations when they went down, what few good players they had leaving, and wrong people at the helm.

Ring any bells ?

And STILL Ashley perseveres with the people in charge who would not even be considered for the Darlington job FFS. (No offence intended to Darlo, but you see the point)

Time to change my avatar to see if that'll change our luck (clutching at straws or what ?)  :( :( :( :(

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The frustrating thing is that we've being saying this from day one.

 

But still Ashley (no experience running a football club), Llambais (no experience running a football club) and their cronies do FUCK ALL!!!!!

 

IF (and it's a big IF) we stay up this season, it will be down to blind luck. Not the fuckwitts running the club or fuckwitts coaching the players. And especially not (for the vast majority) the bunch of greedy, lazy, no-bottle, no-pride absolute disgrace of a bunch of so-called footballers we have at the club.

 

And unless a miracle happens and Ashley finds a buyer, this looks like it will be the norm every season he's in charge (in my opinion).

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The city of Newcastle has invested £250m in cultural attractions over the last 10 years. There’s the Sage Gateshead, the music centre designed by Lord Foster, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and the Theatre Royal.

 

Those'll be in Gateshead then?

 

Then there’s the greatest landmark of all: Newcastle United Football Club.

 

It may not attract too many high-brow art and opera-lovers but its appeal to Newcastle’s historic, grass-roots community is such that 50,000 fans out of a total population of 271,000 turned up for their last home match.

 

Come on Howard, if you are going to quote places that are in Gateshead then at least include Gateshead's population and preferably the rest of Tyneside's to Newcastle's when saying where Newcastle's grass roots football community comes from.

 

 

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"At the head of the queue will be Michael Owen, the £102,000-a-week, bit-part player who has cost £45m in wages, transfer fees and national ins-urance. Starting just 34 per cent of games, his 30 goals have cost £1.5m each. "

 

Umm....surely Owen pays national insurance himself.  :iamatwat:

 

Owen will have only cost about £35m at the end of this season, the FA/FIFA paid one season of his wages, which I assume if the 'insurance' thing the writer is on about.  Even though he gets it the wrong way round.  :laugh2:

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