Asia After his retirement from football in 1977, Kinnear spent five years in
Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates managing
Sharjah and
Al-Shabab (alongside
Dave Mackay), also spending time coaching in Malaysia. He spent three months coaching
India later returning to England to assist Mackay at
Doncaster Rovers.
Wimbledon Kinnear briefly took charge of Doncaster after Mackay's departure in 1989, but was replaced by
Billy Bremner after a consortium completed their takeover of the club. He was voted
Premier League Manager of the Month three times by the end of the season as Wimbledon finished above more established teams including
Liverpool,
Aston Villa,
Everton and
Tottenham Hotspur.
The next season Kinnear continued to defy the odds and Wimbledon finished 9th in the league. It was reported that Kinnear turned down the chance to replace
Jack Charlton as manager of the
Republic of Ireland national team in 1996 because the
FAI did not offer him enough money. Kinnear then guided Wimbledon to semi-finals in both of the major domestic cup competitions in 1997 as well as finishing 8th in the
Premier League. Kinnear continued in his role as Wimbledon until he suffered a heart attack before a league game against
Sheffield Wednesday in March 1999. He stood down in June of that year and was replaced at Wimbledon by
Egil Olsen. Wimbledon were relegated from the Premier League
the following season.
Luton Town Before returning to football management with
Luton Town, Kinnear was a front runner to replace
Martin O'Neill at
Leicester City, and also considered taking over the struggling
Sheffield Wednesday. Instead, Kinnear would be briefly involved as
director of football at
Oxford United during the
2000–01 season. In January 2001, he resigned, reportedly because of poor health. The next season was disappointing for the Hatters, as they were expected to compete for promotion, but in the end they only managed a 9th-place finish. In May 2003 the club was sold to a consortium, led by
John Gurney, which led to Kinnear and his assistant
Mick Harford being sacked in mysterious circumstances, citing a
Northampton Town employee's signature on the letters which confirmed the dismissal.
Nottingham Forest Kinnear was out of work until
Nottingham Forest offered him the manager's job in February 2004, taking over from
Paul Hart. Kinnear was able to get the club up to 14th position by the end of the
2003–04 season. The following
season began with talk of promotion, but would go badly for Forest and Kinnear, with just four wins from the first 23 games in the league that year. A 3–0 defeat by rivals
Derby County at
Pride Park, Nottingham Forest were 22nd in the
Championship table following Kinnear's departure, the club appointed
Mick Harford to take over as interim manager. Forest would ultimately be relegated at the end of the season,
Newcastle United (2008–09) Kinnear was without a club following his departure from Nottingham Forest for almost four years and had not been involved in the top flight since 1999, there were rumours about joining several clubs during this time including
QPR. On 26 September 2008, Kinnear was named as the interim manager of
Premier League side
Newcastle United until the end of October, following the shock resignation of
Kevin Keegan who had publicly berated the owners and directors of the club, suggesting corruption and lack of clarity over who was in charge of the squad. The initial one-month period was extended for an additional month, keeping Kinnear at
St James' Park until the end of December. On 2 October 2008, Kinnear launched a verbal tirade at the
Daily Mirror journalist Simon Bird, calling him a "
cunt". He swore over 50 times in the first five minutes of the interview. The club's press officer tried to order the assembled journalists not to publish any extracts from the tirade, but Kinnear himself gave the journalists permission to write up whatever they wanted from his remarks. Later in the interview, he announced that he would no longer deal with the national media while he was Newcastle manager, and that he would only speak to local newspapers from then on, with first team coach
Chris Hughton handling all other interviews. Kinnear's first two games in charge, against Everton and
Manchester City, both ended as 2–2 draws. Kinnear's first win at Newcastle was against
West Bromwich Albion. Newcastle won the match 2–1, with the first goal coming from
Joey Barton, who was making his first starting appearance for Newcastle since being released from prison during the summer. He then followed this up with a surprise win against fifth-placed Aston Villa to lift Newcastle off the foot of the table and out of the relegation zone. Two goals from
Obafemi Martins secured the 2–0 victory. On 31 October 2008, Kinnear stated that 22 November would be "D–Day" with regards to the sale of Newcastle United and his position as manager. This turned out to be untrue, as Kinnear was confirmed as being in charge for another month after Newcastle's 0–0 draw with
Chelsea. On 28 November, Kinnear was named as the permanent manager of Newcastle until the end of the 2008–09 season. Kinnear continued his event-filled season in charge by getting sent off on 6 December after a confrontation with referee
Mike Riley during a 2–2 draw with
Stoke City, having been up by two goals for most of the match. After that disappointing draw with Stoke, they followed with wins against
Portsmouth and
Tottenham Hotspur, which was Newcastle's fifth consecutive league victory against the North London team. Following a 5–1 defeat by
Liverpool on 28 December, Kinnear re-affirmed his belief that the Newcastle squad lacked strength in depth – with the manager having fielded a makeshift side due to injuries and suspensions resulting from the 2–1 Boxing Day defeat by
Wigan Athletic – and stated that he was looking to improve the side with transfers in the January window. In January, Kinnear secured the signings of
Peter Løvenkrands,
Kevin Nolan and
Ryan Taylor. The latter had been signed in a part exchanged deal with
Charles N'Zogbia. N'Zogbia had frequently stated in the press, via his agent, that he wished to leave after Kinnear mispronounced his name during an interview in which he called him "insomnia". He also stated that he would not consider a return to Newcastle as long as Kinnear was the manager.
Shay Given was also sold to
Manchester City for £7m. On 7 February 2009, Kinnear was taken to hospital after feeling ill, hours before Newcastle's away game against West Brom. The club stated that it was just precautionary and that
Chris Hughton would take charge of the team. Newcastle won 3–2, their first win since Christmas. It was later announced Kinnear would require a heart bypass operation and that
Alan Shearer would take over the managerial role for the remainder of the season. Joe Kinnear's contract officially expired at Newcastle on 30 May 2009.
Director of Football at Newcastle United (2013–2014) On 16 June 2013, in a series of telephone interviews Kinnear claimed he had been appointed as
director of football for Newcastle United. In a
Talksport interview over the telephone on 17 June 2013, Kinnear stated he had replaced "Derek Lambesi" (mispronouncing the name of
Derek Llambias) as the club's director of football, had signed
Dean Holdsworth at Wimbledon for £50,000 (actually £650,000), sold
Robbie Earle (who retired a year after Kinnear left), signed goalkeeper
Tim Krul when he was previously manager (Krul was actually signed by Graeme Souness three years prior) and had been awarded the LMA Manager of the Year award three times despite only winning the award once. He also incorrectly stated he had never been previously sacked. Kinnear claimed to have signed
John Hartson on a free when he in fact paid £7.5 million for the striker. He also mispronounced the names of
Yohan Cabaye,
Hatem Ben Arfa,
Shola Ameobi and others in the Talksport interview. The appointment, a three-year contract, was confirmed by Newcastle United on 18 June. The confusion around Kinnear's appointment to the role was criticised by former club chairman
Freddy Shepherd in an interview with
BBC Sport. Kinnear drew criticism when the 2013 summer transfer window closed with Kinnear failing to make a single permanent signing, lone recruit
Loïc Rémy having been signed on loan from
Queens Park Rangers. This criticism intensified at the end of the 2014 winter transfer window with Kinnear failing again to make a permanent signing, this after the £20 million sale of midfielder Yohan Cabaye, with
Luuk de Jong having been brought in on loan from
Borussia Mönchengladbach. On 3 February 2014, Kinnear resigned from his position of director of football at Newcastle. ==Personal life and death==