Joe Kinnear has declared that he is "head and shoulders above every other director of football" due to his experience as a manager. Kinnear gave his reasoning for the audacious claim in an interview with a North-East newspaper, the Shields Gazette.
“I’m probably the only football manager to be a director of football. I don’t know any other ex-managers who have. I’ve been a manager for 35 years. I’ve been Manager of the Year. I’ve won every award there is in football as a player." Despite his acceptance that he did in fact only win one manager of the year award as opposed to the three he attributed to himself in the famous TalkSport interview, there are a fair few factual inaccuracies thrown in there.
Harry Redknapp (Portsmouth), Avram Grant, Kenny Dalglish and Rudi Völler come to mind as former managers who have become Directors of Football. Kinnear also never won a league title, European Cup, not to mind an international trophy as a player. The former Wimbeldon manager also made the dubious claim that “Every top club in the land has got a (Director of Football),”. The Premier League champions Manchester United as well as Arsenal and Everton don't make the cut on the ruthless Kinnear's list of 'top clubs'.
