HATEM BEN AFRY, Yohan Cabart and Shola Amamobi — welcome back Joe Kinnear.
The former Ireland international is back in the Premier League and back at Newcastle United, this time as director of football. Kinnear spoke to talkSPORT about his new role and was not backward in coming forward to his “snide-y” critics in the Geordie press.
In a wide-ranging 14-minute interview, Kinnear spoke about being on the phone to Alex Ferguson ‘week-in, week-out’, buying striker Dean Holdsworth for £50,000 and selling him on for £3m, and how the local media in Newcastle were gutted when his team beat Spurs at St James’ Park.
Asked by host Andy Goldstein about his reaction to criticism from Newcastle supporters upon confirmation of his return, Kinnear said, “I’m not sure of that. It’s only a certain section… I had over 10,000 letters when I had my heart attack [in 2009]. That was a wonderful thing.”
He believes many Geordies are ‘influenced by the media set’ in Newcastle and remarked that modern football often sees fans stamp their feet and a majority of managers that are lucky to last two seasons at a club. He added:
They keep saying what did I do. Where have these people been? Have they been on another planet? I have played in 5 cup finals — I have won the lot. I had over 400 games for Tottenham Hotspur; been manager of the year 3 times. I have travelled all over the world as a manager. Now this job come up, which I thought was a fairly responsible job, but already they are jumping on the bandwagon ‘Oh watch out Pardo, watch out’.
“But that’s the snide-y press. That’s the people up there or the people round that area that I have upset and they have a grudge so I expect it. It’s water off a duck’s arse.”
Kinnear named some of the Newcastle players that have done well for the club in recent seasons but got many of the names wrong – Yohan Cabart [Cabaye], Shola Amamobi (Ameobi) and Hatem Ben Afra (Ben Arfa), whom he later called ‘Ben Afry’.
Have a listen to the full interview here:
YouTube credit: TheBlaze106
Ain’t gonna happen anytime soon, unless they decide to match him up with Frankie in a number one contenders match and the winner fights him at UFC 200.
But that would really piss Edgar off, which would be hilarious actually.
I’m staying otta this one…
Aldo isn’t gracious in defeat, on the night or now and he’s still making excuses and threats to the UFC and McGregor. Let him stew.
A guy who’s undefeated for 10 years and champion as long as he is deserves a rematch. He got caught with one shot and knocked out, it happens in fights. The disrespect he is shown from Irish fans is embarrassing to be honest. If McGregor gets tagged in his first defence at 145 ye would all be screaming for an immediate rematch.
I agree Alan 100%. I’m delighted for Conor but Jose was a great champion and does deserve his rematch.
As much as there’s a McGregor bandwagon, theres also a big anti-Mcgregor bandwagon, who will latch onto half truths about his opponents… Aldo was a champion for 10 years becuase he fought in a weight class with very few other fighters for the first 5 and for the last 5 he barely ever fought… when was the last time he knocked anyone out? He was massively fussy about who he would fight, always picking fighters who were well below his ability and dodging the hard match ups. If truth be told, Conor was the first striking test he ever really faced in the UFC… He doesn’t deserve an immediate rematch because he has a history of pulling out of fights that didnt suit him.
So Ken Flo, Korean Zombie, Edgar were not hard match ups? Hominick took him to the brink as well. A great champ, and the only champ at 145. If Cain, Anderson etc get an immediate rematch, so should he
In fairness,who does he think he is,sayin he’s not goin to fight anyone else.he only fights once a yr anyway.think he’s still concussed after McGregor got a hold of him
UFC spent 18 months promoting Aldo vs McGregor. It would be very hard for them to promote it again for another 6 months after how the last fight finished. Especially as Aldo had no interest in promoting the 1st fight and left Mcgregor to do all the media work. As White said,aldo deserves a rematch after being such a dominant champion but the timing for that rematch wouldnt be right now. Let Mcgregor fight RDA and then he can fight Aldo/Edgar at UFC200 in july,but either way 1 of them aint gonna be happy.
It’s not surprising to be honest. Dana White is all about the $, he couldn’t give a toss about who deserves a rematch or who is next in line, whatever fight makes the most cash for the ufc ( ie. him and his business partners) is the fight that will be made. Hope mcgregor demands he gets his fair share, he pulls in way more ppv numbers then a lot of boxers but gets paid alot less then some of them.
He’s gotten his arse handed to him in record time already, is that not enough
One mistake in 10 years? Is that not a reason to give him another shot? Even after the first fight when they were waiting on the official announcement Conor himself was man enough to say they could do it again.
I think Dana is right though. Woukd be hard to promote that. It’s the fight game yes but equally ufc want to make money. The interest for that just isn’t there after last time. Maybe a year down the road might be better for all involved..