Dirty TackleJoe Kinnear allegedly tried to sign player who already played for Newcastle
Since his appointment as Newcastle's Director of Football over the summer, Joe Kinnear appears to have done everything in his power to establish himself as the game's premier unintentionally hilarious executive.
According to the Sunday People, the man who swore 52 times in his first Newcastle press conference has taken his abstract comedy routine to the next level by attempting to sign a player who is already owned by his club.
Kinnear is said to have attended Birmingham's League Cup victory over Swansea in September on a scouting mission, and was particularly impressed by left winger Shane Ferguson.
The Sunday People's source claims that the man who is solely in charge of player recruitment for Newcastle Utd approached Birmingham about signing the 22-year-old Northern Ireland international. This would be a reasonable enquiry if the Ulsterman hadn't been a loan player who has been on Newcastle's books since 2009:
“Ferguson had a particularly good game that night and Joe Kinnear told one of our officials he was interested in signing him.
“At first our guy thought he was joking but then he realised Kinnear did not know Ferguson was already a Newcastle player.”
A "source close to Kinnear" has since rubbished the story, but it is curious that the denial has come from an anonymous source, rather than an official at the club. From this, we must conclude that the source was actually Kinnear on the phone doing a funny voice. Either that, or Newcastle's beleaguered public relations department are too busy putting out the fire that owner Mike Ashley recently started when he banned local reporters from St James Park.
