Joe slams ‘diabolical’ Shearer

SHEAR NONSENSE ... new Toon football director Kinnear blasts back at Shearer over his criticism

JOE KINNEAR has hit back at Newcastle legend Alan Shearer by labelling his criticism as “diabolical”.

And the Magpies’ new director of football has also apologised to Toon supporters after slagging them off last week.

SunSport columnist Shearer, who scored 206 goals in 404 games for Newcastle, claimed Kinnear’s appointment “undermined” manager Alan Pardew.

The former England captain also said recent events at St James’ Park had turned the club into a “laughing stock”.

But Kinnear blasted back: “What Shearer says is diabolical.

“This is a guy who doesn’t have a clue about coaching.”

The former Wimbledon boss highlighted Shearer’s failure to keep Newcastle in the Premier League in the final eight games of 2008-09, when he stepped into the hot-seat after Kinnear suffered a heart attack.

And he added: “In 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 can’t tackle. And we went down with an own goal from Damien.

“Shearer keeps slagging me off.

“He’s being disrespectful to me. I am entitled to fight back.”

In an eventful few days since Kinnear, 66, announced his own appointment, managing director Derek Llambias has resigned and there was also a fuss over the renaming of Shearer’s Bar at St James’ Park.

But the Irishman has tried to clear the air after controversial interviews on television and radio where he made several erroneous claims, got players’ names wrong and said he had “more intelligence” than the fans.

He apologised for that remark, saying: “I regret what I said about the supporters.

“I can’t get anybody to say that Joe has the utmost respect for the supporters and they are the most important people at the club.

“I always go to their forums and loved having the craic with them around the city when I was manager there.

“There are 10 per cent that I’m never going to win over, that is the point I was trying to make.

“But I regret what I said and if I offended any Newcastle fans I apologise.”

Kinnear’s surprise appointment has piled the pressure on manager Alan Pardew and chief scout Graham Carr, who both now report into him.

But he insists he won’t be interfering in first-team matters.

Kinnear said: “I’ll have the job of over-looking the reserves and youth team to see where we are progressing, as well as being chief advisor to the chairman Mike Ashley.

“If things are going wrong, I am accountable and he’ll be coming through me, not anybody else. Everybody thinks Pardew is under pressure. He’s not. I am. “I could get sacked.”