Joe Kinnear: Newcastle failed to sign Darren Bent from Tottenham

Kinnear tried but failed to interest Spurs counterpart Harry Redknapp in a swap-deal involving Bent and French midfielder Charles N'Zogbia, who instead ended up moving to Wigan. He also confirmed that Newcastle's efforts to sign Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia, as well as Manchester City duo Michael Johnson and Nedum Onuoha, were rebuffed by their Premier League rivals. Kinnear said: "We tried to do plenty of things but clubs wouldn't sell. I spoke to Harry Redknapp about swapping Charles N'Zogbia for Darren Bent but that was not something that Tottenham wanted to do. "We went to Liverpool for Sami Hyypia and got turned down. We wanted Michael Johnson and Nedum Onuoha from Manchester City as part of the Shay Given deal but they wouldn't sell them, and we were faced with the choice of having a really unhappy player or letting him go. "We were close with Johnson and when we didn't get that we went for (Sunderland midfielder) Kieran Richardson. "I had to raise my own transfer funds through selling other players, which was not ideal, but we just had to get on with it. The credit crunch has hit us hard.

Source: Telegraph