Kinnear Wants Long-term Deal As Tyneside Firefighter

Joe Kinnear was hired by Newcastle United as football's equivalent of Red Adair on a month-to-month contract but he has warned that he is not prepared to serve as a short-term firefighter indefinitely. "If Newcastle is not sold quickly there is going to come a point when I've got to look after myself," he said. "I would like a bit more security, I suppose."

With the economic crisis hindering Mike Ashley's attempts to sell the club, the possibility of the former Wimbledon manager remaining in charge for significantly longer than the eight weeks or so originally envisaged is increasing. Should Tuesday's win against West Bromwich Albion prove to be the turning point in the struggle to ward off a relegation battle, the 61-year-old Kinnear may soon ask Ashley to start thinking longer term.

"What I have to do is see how popular I become or how well I do," he said. "And then I have got to ask someone, 'Hey, I've got to start thinking of my own future now, is a long-term contract going to be offered to me?' It might not come to that if they find a buyer but, if the answer is no, I am not sure whether I can continue to work month after month after month like this."

When he succeeded Kevin Keegan in September, Kinnear was very much a forgotten figure and one of his first acts - an obscenity-filled rant at reporters - suggested he was also yesterday's man. Football, though, is notoriously fickle and he knows that the idea of booking himself a longer stay is not quite as fanciful as it might have seemed even a fortnight ago.

Nor is he threatening to leave Ashley in the lurch. "I have never walked out on any football club in my life and I don't want to break the habit of a lifetime," he said. "I never applied for this job, I just got a phone call out of the blue. Obviously I got it because no one else took it."

Now, though, a man who had been out of work since leaving Nottingham Forest four years ago hopes his stock will rise sufficiently to force Ashley's hand. Already Kinnear's agent has dropped hints that other clubs are casting covetous glances at his client, and Newcastle may yet be faced with an unexpectedly tricky decision and unforeseen tug of war should a rival offer him a two- or three-year deal to manage a lower-division team.

Well aware that the club's eventual new owner will almost certainly want to install his own man, Ashley does not want to commit Newcastle to the sort of generous severance package that accompanies longer-term deals. "When we had our first chat I saw myself being here two to a maximum of three months, but if the club hasn't been sold by then we'll have to review the situation," said Kinnear. "I want to stay in the game. But I haven't got a clue what the future holds."

Until Ashley manages to find a buyer, Newcastle's horizon looks similarly cloudy.

Barton: it was for fans

Joey Barton scribbled autographs for corporate fans filling executive boxes at St James' Park after being voted the sponsors' man of the match in the 2-1 home win over West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday, the first game he had started since being released from prison and serving a subsequent FA ban. 'That was for all the fans and everyone I've let down,' the midfielder said of a spot-kick he demanded to take even though, in Michael Owen's absence, Obafemi Martins had been ordained as Newcastle United's penalty-taker. 'One thing that can never be leveled against me is that I lack courage. I am always one to step up to the plate.' But he said the match award should have gone to Damien Duff. 'Perhaps I picked up a bit of the sentimental vote.'