Joe Kinnear according to today's Sunday People was on a scouting mission in Birmingham in September when midfielder Shane Ferguson caught his eye in the home teams fixture with Swansea.
Kinnear "raved" about Ferguson to Birmingham officials and suggested signing him. A source told The People:
“Ferguson had a particularly good game that night and Joe Kinnear told one of our officials he was interested in signing him.
“At first our guy thought he was joking but then he realised Kinnear did not know Ferguson was already a Newcastle player.”
Ferguson is on loan for the year from Newcastle. A blunder of epic proportions, if true of course.