Source: Daily_Mail
Kinnear the patsy is running out of time and options
Much as he needed to get players in, the manager was relating how glad he would be when the transfer window was over. The record for one day this January, he was telling me, had been 14 agents on the phone and he was now switching off the mobile for a couple of hours to escape into a film in a darkened cinema. [LNB]By contrast, as he scrambles to make last-gasp moves in the market along with many other desperate ashenfaced supremos as macho, posturing clubs take deals that could have been done weeks ago to the brink, Newcastle's caretaker patsy Joe Kinnear must be wishing it could be extended beyond tomorrow's deadline.[LNB] [LNB]STRUGGLE: Kinnear's injury list is growing alarmingly[LNB]Injuries in midweek to Michael Owen, Joey Barton and Charles N'Zogbia - the latter wounded pride - to add to the already snaking queue for the treatment room, have intensified a need for reinforcements.[LNB]Funny how the injury list at a club grows in proportion to the level of internal discontent.[LNB] More from Ian Ridley... Liverpool need not walk alone if they can win it together[LNB]24/01/09 Mourinho would be ideal to pig-out with Manchester City[LNB]17/01/09 At last, a chance for justice to be done over the Tevez affair[LNB]10/01/09 Capello carrying a torch of hope for the English game[LNB]03/01/09 Was Brown wise to tear a strip off Hull?[LNB]27/12/08 A woeful week for the professionals[LNB]20/12/08 Rein in Rooney or we will all regret it[LNB]13/12/08 Teach managers how to do a Fergie[LNB]06/12/08 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE[LNB] The problem for Newcastle is that few - of the requisite quality, anyway - want to join them. Kevin Nolan was released for a reason by Bolton as they contemplated his recent contribution and commitment. As overgenerous inducement, he receives a four-and-a-half year contract.[LNB]Those at St James', meanwhile, can hardly wait to get out. Owen will surely be off in the summer, while Barton would have been sold if Portsmouth could have come up with the fee. N'Zogbia used Kinnear's footling but crass calling of him 'Insomnia' as reason for a move.[LNB]To top it all, when such a touchstone player as Shay Given forces the club's hand by putting in a transfer request, then the game is surely up for such a bumbling, discredited regime as the hapless Mike Ashley has created. Forget playing football in the cavalier style that longsuffering, short-changed fans crave; a scrap for Premier League survival is the best they can expect. And that is becoming dangerously uncertain.[LNB]Contemplating the season so far, it seems that only Sir Alex Ferguson and Martin O'Neill have escaped criticism, all other managers and clubs being deemed in crisis at one point or another, such is the shorttermism of scrutiny these days. With Newcastle it has been consistent and shows little sign of turning.[LNB]An isolated saving grace in recent weeks has been the enthusiasm shown by young striker Andrew Carroll - and you guess his recent dust-up on the training ground with N'Zogbia might well have had something to do with effort levels. It does make you wonder why, in contrast to the past, Newcastle simply cannot bring on more of the young talent that should be so abundant in such a vibrant footballing region.[LNB]At such a low point, thus does today's home match against Sunderland carry echoes of that rainy derby when Ruud Gullit dropped Alan Shearer and Newcastle lost. Except that, almost a decade later, after Sir Bobby Robson turned the club around before his sacking began the current crisis, this is much worse.[LNB]What's the solution? In the short term - that is today and tomorrow - Ashley must release funds to get players in to keep the club up and thus make them a more saleable commodity in the summer. And in a twist to the old saying of 'buyer beware', the club should beware any buyer this time.[LNB]Now, the BBC in the North-East have interviewed Freddy Shepherd, the club's former chairman, who owned almost 30 per cent of the club before Ashley bought out the majority shareholder Sir John Hall.[LNB]It was Shepherd, you may recall, who sacked His Royal Bobbiness. Sitting in the sun at an exotic golf course, Shepherd reveals that he believes the modern player to be overpaid and calls for a wage cap.[LNB]This, from a man who trousered £37million from selling out to Ashley and was earning more than £700,000 a year from the club five years ago at a time when a chief executive of a non-football company with an equivalent turnover was earning £200,000 annually. And that was without Shepherd's share dividend of up to £1m a year. He was asked if he might come back to Newcastle. 'Never say never,' he replied. The purpose of this column, therefore, is to offer consolation to Newcastle fans: it could be worse.[LNB] AS deals are done, you do wonder about the morality of some, or quite how clubs agree to certain conditions. With Tottenham asking about Kenwyne Jones, it emerged that the striker has a get-out clause saying that he can move for £6million if Sunderland are relegated. Is this an incentive for him to do his utmost to keep the club up? [LNB]Then there is Steve Bruce complaining that Manchester City unsettled Wilson Palacios by declaring an interest in him before giving way so Spurs could sign him. In return, Spurs gave up their interest in Craig Bellamy, thus allowing City a clear run. Comfort to the Wigan manager will be the Premier League checking, of course, for any malpractice. [LNB]Meanwhile, Sheffield United prevailed upon Charlton not to play Matthew Spring against them in the FA Cup, even though he had only been on loan at Bramall Lane while owned by Luton. Sheffield Unitedmay not have broken rules, but they have sadly ceded some of the moral high ground they were occupying in the Carlos Tevez affair. [LNB] [LNB]
