• Premier League

Kinnear blasts 'clueless' coach Shearer

ESPN staff
June 23, 2013

Newly appointed Newcastle United director of football Joe Kinnear has hit back at club legend Alan Shearer's criticism of him, insisting that the former Toon striker has "not got a clue".

The ex-England forward recently stated he was "sickened" by the appointment of Kinnear, a former manager of the Premier League club.

However, speaking in The Sunday Times, the former Wimbledon boss responded by dismissing Shearer's thoughts and further stuck the boot in by suggesting the 42-year-old was "clueless" when it came to coaching.

"What Shearer says is diabolical," Kinnear told The Sunday Times. "This is a guy who hasn't got a clue about coaching. Good in five-a-sides, though, so they tell me.

"The last game of the season he came up with the master idea of playing Damien Duff at left-back. Damien is one of the best left-wingers in the business, but he can't tackle. And we went down with an own goal from Damien. Shearer keeps slagging me off. He is being disrespectful to me. I am entitled to fight back."

Kinnear suggested he had been set up in his interview with talkSPORT, where he infamously referred to Magpies star player Yohan Cabaye as 'Yohan Kebab' - which Shearer later described as a "PR disaster".

The 66-year-old believes he had been misguided in the interview and thought he would be speaking to presenter Bobby Gould, who was Kinnear's old manager at Wimbledon.

'I did it [the interview] as a favour and I am so disappointed," Kinnear added. "I was on air and he switched me to the other presenter. I thought I was going to speak to Bobby [Gould] about the old days.

"Yohan is a brilliant player and I didn't pronounce his name right. But I didn't say 'Kebab'. I said 'Keba' and they put the 'b' onto it. They made a meal of it, no pun intended. Typical journalists, but it is my own fault and I regret what I said about the supporters."

The day after Kinnear was appointed, United managing director Derek Llambias resigned from his position.

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