No wonder Newcastle have been so quiet in the transfer market if one of their targets was one of their own players.
Nothing Joe Kinnear does should surprise us, but trying to sign a player who is contracted to the club on a five year-deal is nothing short of bizarre.
Newcastle’s relationship with the media is not particularly good at the moment – the club has banned a number of local papers from press conferences – and The Sunday People could well be next on the hitlist after Alan Oliver writes in today’s paper how Kinnear enquired about Shane Ferguson after watching the midfielder turn in an impressive performance for Birmingham City in the Capital One Cup.
Unbeknownst to the Newcastle Director of Football, Ferguson is on loan at St. Andrews from Newcastle, having signed a five year deal with the club in 2011.
Kinnear was highly impressed by Ferguson’s performance against Swansea in September and reportedly enquired about the midfielder who can also play full-back, only to be told by baffled Birmingham staff that he was in fact a Newcastle player. The 22 year-old’s last Premier League appearance for Newcastle was last December in the 7-3 defeat at Arsenal.
Some have claimed that the story is simply untrue and has been discredited by others, but regardless, it is another story that Mike Ashley and the Newcastle board won't be overly pleased with.
