Joe Kinnear, who was named Newcastle coach seven days ago, launched an expletive-laden attack on newspaper reporters yesterday, accusing them of printing “lies.”
Several newspapers said Kinnear arrived for his first training session four days ago to find that none of the players had turned up and no training had been scheduled. Kinnear denied the reports, saying he had given the players a day off.
I “don’t trust any of you,” Kinnear, 51, told reporters, according to a transcript published in the Guardian yesterday.
“I will pick two local papers and speak to them. I have a million pages of crap that has been written about me,” he said.
According to transcripts, Kinnear used 52 profanities and told reporters he would be seeking legal advice over the reports.
Simon Bird, a reporter with the Daily Mirror singled out by Kinnear, told the BBC that reporters had offered to keep the exchange off the record.
“His response was ‘write what you effing want in the paper’ — we asked him whether he was sure and he said ‘go ahead write it’ so we have written it,’’ Bird told BBC Radio Five Live.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley put the club up for sale after fan protests over the departure of former coach Kevin Keegan, who quit on Sept. 4.
Newcastle are next to bottom of the English Premier League. Kinnear was given a short-term contract to replace Keegan.
Kinnear, who hasn’t coached in the Premier League since he left Wimbledon in 1999, acknowledged he was not the first choice to takeover at the Magpies, saying “half-a-dozen” others had turned the post down.
He had to watch his first match, a defeat by Blackburn, from the stands because of a touchline ban he received in 2004 while at Nottingham Forest. He completes his ban in two days when Newcastle travel to Everton.
Kinnear coached Wimbledon from 1992 to 1999, Luton from 2001 to 2003, and at Nottingham Forest in 2004.
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