Kinnear gets it wrong on several levels

SOCCER ANGLES:The manager's outburst revealed a lack of awareness of where he is and what he is doing

THIS JOB can squeeze you into a corner at times. Having had direct experience of Alex Ferguson's anger, and Peter Reid's, among others, you can be made to feel small as well as uncomfortable.

At least the angst of the first smack does not last. You know that one reason why a manager is swearing in front of you is because of the machismo of professional football and its long-established hierarchical structure. But deep down something lingers, because you also know, or suspect strongly, these managers, players and chairmen are shouting because they think you know nothing or next to it.

If you dwell on this it does little for your self-esteem. Sitting two seats away from Joe Kinnear on Thursday morning, that bad feeling returned.

I know Joe Kinnear knows more about football than I do. He has played at its highest levels and he has managed - successfully - in the Premier League. His inside appreciation of his industry outstrips my experience by country miles.

Moreover, I can understand why he thinks he has been mocked.

But I also know that all of us in that room have our own appreciation of football. We may underestimate this player and overplay another, but basically we can see what is going on in front of us and understand it.

Simultaneously, we can write about it, often under pressurised deadlines. Sometimes we get things wrong.

But we can also appreciate that the game is about more than 4-2-4 or whatever formation is in vogue. It seems to me the physical courage of professionals goes virtually unremarked while people blather on about tactics and heighten their importance.

But who am I, who are we?

As of this week, we understand that, in the view of Joe Kinnear, who may be more representative than we like to think, we are swear words at best and irrelevant at worst. How can we not know: he swore at us 52 times in six minutes.

Kinnear started by lacerating Simon Bird of the Daily Mirrorfor an article published on Tuesday. He called Simon, a friend of mine, something not repeatable here. Simon has been called this before, sometimes by his friends, but, as he pointed out, should he be forced to put up with that in a professional environment? Who would? What tone would it set if he merely took it?

Like it or not, Kinnear is, briefly, the public face of a massive economic and sporting institution and represents it every time he speaks.

Kinnear did add: "There, I said it to your face," and his honesty on this subject is incontestable. Plenty of managers and players would have said it behind a reporter's back.

But there is a third way. Kinnear could have taken the two reporters who upset him most outside and done his deed there, in private.

Or he could have asked for the tape recorders to be switched off and insulted them in front of others. A lively discussion of the sort that occurred would have ensued, but it would have been contained within the room's four walls. This would be my preferred choice; it's our business.

But instead, and in spite of being given the chance to make this argument off the record, Kinnear said No.

Because of that, yesterday's Daily Mirror had a picture of Kinnear's head mutated into a volcano. Because of that, there was another day of "Oh, not again" Newcastle United stories. Because of that, the man who created this whole mess, Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, evades another day of scrutiny.

It is not great to be advocating cuteness over honesty, but sometimes cuteness can embrace it as well as serve a more pragmatic purpose.

Now we're left talking about the bloody media again and thinking that at Wimbledon he was under nothing like the intensity St James' Park attracts. We are left to focus on Kinnear's abilities as a manager amid declining sympathy for the fact he has walked into a club and a team falling apart. Kinnear could do with his time on Tyneside being placed in context, but that sort of understanding withers when he stands there and calls you this or - worse - that.

It revealed a lack of awareness of where he is and what he is doing. Newcastle United 2008 is not Wimbledon 1992. The last four years at Newcastle did not just un-happen the moment Kinnear walked in.

Some might say Alex Ferguson gets away with such behaviour in 2008. But Ferguson is one of the greatest managers of all time and Manchester United win and win and win again. The story is if they lose. Joe Kinnear is not yet one of the greatest managers of all time, Newcastle have not won the league since 1927 and have lost the last five games. The story is if they win.

It is worth repeating that we reporters get things wrong, either factually or in terms of emphasis, and there is a readiness to sneer now that has not always been present.

But contrary to what some think, we are not always looking for trouble. Joe Kinnear's Irish debut came in Turkey in 1967. Johnny Giles played, so too Eamon Dunphy. Noel Cantwell scored. Charlie Hurley, Sunderland's greatest, was in the team. To hear Kinnear's opinion of Hurley and all would have been interesting, reflective and displayed the breadth of Kinnear's experience. But we never got around to that.

The full text of Joe Kinnear's rant can be read at irishtimes.com/sports

Different needs 

AFTER EUROPEAN reassurance came in midweek, it is back to domestic necessity for North London's twin powers. Arsenal fans, sometimes unconvinced by their young team's ability to sustain a title challenge, will stress the need for victory today at Sunderland. Some are prepared to say their quest for three points is every bit as vital as Tottenham Hotspur's.

After all, a glance at the fixture lists in August showed Arsenal had to be top of the division by October if they were to stand a realistic chance of regaining a title last won in 2004.

Of those first six games, two were at home to promoted teams, West Brom and Hull, the third home match was against Newcastle, who finished 12th last season. Of the three away games, Fulham and Bolton finished 17th and 16th respectively, and if Sunderland today are included, that meant, until the second international break, Blackburn were the only top-10 club from last season played.

Manchester United, meanwhile, have gone to Anfield and Stamford Bridge. So maybe Arsenal diehards do have a point.

They really do need to win today.

But surely it can't match Tottenham's need at White Hart Lane tomorrow. They are yet to win in the league, but then they have faced Chelsea, Portsmouth and Aston Villa. And tomorrow's opponents? Little Hull City.

Arise Lazarus

WHERE HAVE all the young men gone? - that was once the question. Barnsley, this week, was one answer. It is to be hoped Reuben Noble-Lazarus becomes more than a quiz question, but as of now he is known for being, at 15 years and 45 days, the youngest player in the league ever. This is some claim.

Not many of us pass our 15th birthday to be confronted with Ipswich Town and 18,000 people.

Even if it is only for six minutes, it is still a landmark event for the league as well as Noble-Lazarus.

The next day, there he was back at school in Huddersfield. Eyebrows have been raised not just at Noble-Lazarus' age, but that he lives as far away as Huddersfield.

But then we were given news of another young man on the move this week. Jeremy Boga is 12 and plays for a team in Marseilles. He has been scouted by Chelsea, allegedly, and is going over as his father currently works in London.

If 15 is a tender age to be going from Huddersfield to Barnsley, then what of 12 and Marseilles to London?