Former Newcastle United striker Mark Viduka has opened up on his brief time under Joe Kinnear.
Kinnear, who sadly passed away last year, was a rather surprise appointment under Mike Ashley at Newcastle United in 2008.
At that point, the former Wimbledon manager had not managed a Premier League team since 1999 but was brought in as the club’s interim manager when Kevin Keegan resigned in 2008.
Kinnear oversaw 21 games as Newcastle United manager and won four of them before stepping down in February 2009 due to health reasons. Alan Shearer replaced him and Newcastle were eventually relegated, before Kinnear returned as Director of Football in 2013.
Viduka was part of the team who were relegated from the Premier League during the 2008-09 season and has been speaking about his time under Kinnear.
Joe Kinnear managing Newcastle United.
Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images
Mark Viduka on Joe Kinnear
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph about his time under Kinnear, Viduka revealed he didn’t think the former Toon boss had bad intentions.
The club were in a real mess at the time but Kinnear had spent so long out of football that he did have an almost impossible task.
“The Joe Kinnear experience, I would say the best word would be… what’s a word I could say? Unusual,” he said.
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“I don’t think he was a bad bloke, but he was gone from the game for a long time and thrown in at the deep end.”
Mark Viduka wanted Alan Shearer to become Newcastle United’s permanent manager
In the aforementioned interview with The Daily Telegraph, Viduka reveals he now runs a coffee shop in Zagreb.
Previously, the former Leeds and Australia striker has expressed his regret that Shearer was not made the permanent Newcastle manager after the club’s relegation in 2009.
The Newcastle United legend is on record of saying he wanted the job after getting a taste for it but never heard back from Ashley. Chris Hughton was instead promoted to the managerial role and won the Championship in his first season in charge.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT in 2024, Viduka said: “He had a huge presence about him, and I think I said it at the time, I would have loved to see him stay on.
“He was obviously very disappointed with the way things ended at Newcastle, and that deterred him from going forward with his career as a manager. He knows the game in and out, and with time, I think he would have done very well.”