Joe Kinnear in 2008, during his time as manager of Newcastle United. Photo: Owen Humphreys/PA
Joe Kinnear, who has died aged 77, had a vibrant and successful career in three football arenas: as a prize-winning defender at Tottenham in the 1960s and 1970s, as a 26-cap international with Ireland, and as a combative, resourceful manager of Wimbledon in the 1990s, when they defied the establishment by retaining their status as Premier League members throughout his seven-year reign.
A fleet-footed right-back, Kinnear won the FA Cup, League Cup (twice) and UEFA Cup with Spurs, while being a regular option for Ireland during three European Championships and two World Cup qualifying campaigns from 1967 to 1975. Despite the three elements of a eventful sporting life, his time at Wimbledon was probably the most impressive, as he managed a team that hardly had the right to compete in the top division.
Despite being heavily tipped for relegation in every year of Kinnear's tenure from 1992, Wimbledon achieved highly respectable finishes of 12th, 6th, 9th, 14th, 8th and 15th in the six full seasons he managed them in the Premier League, with a high water level. Mark in the 1996-97 season, when they reached the FA semi-finals and the League Cup and at one point seemed to be in real contention for the league title. After Kinnear was forced to resign due to ill health in 1999, Wimbledon were relegated shortly after his departure.
Born in Dublin, he was the son of Margaret (née O'Reilly) and Joe Reddy, a Guinness brewery employee. The marriage failed when he was young, and his mother moved to England, where she lived with a new partner, Gerry Kinnear, in Watford, Hertfordshire. Joe joined his mother when he was six and grew up with his four sisters, taking his stepfather's surname.
His football exploits at the modern secondary school Leggatts Way soon led to him captaining the Watford and Hertfordshire schoolboy teams, and later, while working as an apprentice in the printing works, he joined non-league St. Albans City, where he was spotted by Tottenham's scouts. Signed by manager Bill Nicholson as an amateur in 1963, he turned professional two years later and made his debut in 1966.
The story continues
Known for his pace and physicality, Kinnear had fully established himself at Spurs by 1967, aged 20, making 28 appearances during the 1966-67 season, including a 2-1 victory in the 1967 FA Cup Final against Chelsea. , in which he was widely regarded as man of the match. There was a setback when he missed most of a year after breaking his leg in January 1969, but on his return he was able to regain his place, claiming winners' medals in the 1971 League Cup, 1972 UEFA Cup and Final of the 1973 League Cup with victories over Aston Villa, Wolves and Norwich City respectively.
However, not long after the last of those medal wins, Kinnear began to find his place under the challenge of a new boy, Ray Evans, and after just 24 appearances in the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons he decided to move to Division Three Brighton in the summer of 1975, having made 258 appearances for Spurs in all competitions. He lasted just one season at Brighton before retiring at the age of 30 with a knee injury, and also made his final appearance for Ireland during that campaign, in October 1975 against Turkey.
He began his managerial career with coaching jobs in the UAE, Malaysia, India and Nepal, eventually returning to Britain in the late 1980s as assistant manager to his old Spurs clubmate Dave Mackay at Fourth Division Doncaster Rovers. He became caretaker manager there in 1989 when McKay moved to Birmingham City, before moving to Wimbledon as their reserve team manager the same year.
By then, to the surprise of many observers, the previously modest south-west London club had established itself at the top of English football, even winning the FA Cup in 1988, having been a non-league club eleven years earlier been. that triumph. When Kinnear took over the full management role in 1992, he did so in the wake of a predecessor, Peter Withe, who had made a misguided attempt to abandon the club's anarchic 'Crazy Gang' culture before resigning after 105 days at the club. management was fired.
Kinnear, on the other hand, fully understood what made Wimbledon tick, and was almost immediately able to restore the club's fortunes by restoring its sense of underdog spirit and its commitment to direct football.
Gruff, tough and stubborn, but with a witty, larky side, Kinnear was a manager in the image of the Wimbledon players. He was also an excellent man-manager, had a knack for signing players such as Kenny Cunningham, Dean Holdsworth and Marcus Gayle, who could make the step up from lower divisions to the Premier League, and was adept at bringing in talent from homegrown, including Jason Euell, Neal Ardley and Chris Perry. He was voted League Managers Association manager of the year in 1994 and won four Premier League manager of the month awards - as many as have ever been claimed by José Mourinho, Mauricio Pochettino or Roy Hodgson.
Kinnear's time at Wimbledon effectively ended when, aged 52, he suffered a heart attack before a match at Sheffield Wednesday in March 1999. In June that year he resigned to make way for Egil Olsen as his successor, and the following season came the relegation. .
Within two years he had resurfaced at Luton Town, making himself manager after initially being appointed director of football. He moved from Division Three to Division Two in 2003 and kept them there before being sacked by a new group of owners the following year. He subsequently became manager of second-tier Nottingham Forest, but resigned within twelve months after a string of poor results.
Subsequently out of the game for almost four years, Kinnear was recruited by Premier League Newcastle United as their agent in 2008 in a surprise move following the unexpected resignation of Kevin Keegan. After a good start he got the permanent job, but within three months - during which he often had an irritable and powerless relationship with the media - he had to resign and undergo heart bypass surgery.
In a coda to that short spell, Newcastle appointed him director of football on a three-year contract five years later, a position he held for just six months before resigning again. His short time in the role was marked by some strange statements and erratic behavior, and within a year he was diagnosed with dementia.
He is survived by his wife Bonnie (nee Arnold) and their daughter Russelle; their son, Elliot, was predeceased.
* Joe Kinnear, footballer and manager, born December 27, 1946; died April 7, 2024
