Kinnear quits Magpies

Joe Kinnear has resigned as Newcastle's director of football after a turbulent week on Tyneside.

The former Magpies manager stepped down on Monday night just days after the club sold midfielder Yohan Cabaye and failed to replace him before Friday's transfer deadline.

In a statement the club said: "Newcastle United can confirm that Joe Kinnear has this evening resigned from his position as Director of Football with immediate effect.

"The club will be making no further comment."

Kinnear was appointed on a three-year contract in June last year but leaves St James' Park having not made a single permanent signing. Only strikers Loic Remy and Luuk de Jong joined Newcastle on loan.

The 67-year-old was a controversial appointment last summer as owner Mike Ashley responded to a desperately disappointing season which saw the club finish in 16th place in the Barclays Premier League despite an investment in excess of £30million in new players during the January transfer window.

Manager Alan Pardew, who had guided them into fifth 12 months earlier, kept his job after an end-of-season review, but only just with Ashley deeply unhappy.

His response, to general disbelief, was to ask Kinnear to head up the football side of the business.

The appointment did not go down well with fans who remembered his first spell on Tyneside. An ill-fated five-month reign as Kevin Keegan's replacement was eventually ended by illness. Alan Shearer was then parachuted in in a vain attempt to prevent the club being relegated.

It was equally unpopular with managing director Derek Llambias, who resigned to end his association with Ashley at St James'.

On his appointment Kinnear urged fans to judge him on his signings, perhaps that judgement has been passed.