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Newcastle United players were always understood to be baffled by the role of Joe Kinnear at St James’ Park.

The former Wimbledon boss was virtually an unknown to most of the French legion at the club’s Benton base and very few of the club’s younger stars had even heard of the one-time Tottenham Hotspur full-back.

Kinnear also irked the now departed Yohan Cabaye by failing to complete the transfer of the French international to Arsenal last August.

Cabaye’s anger at the time was because he felt United had received a reasonable bid from him for the Gunners - only for the offer of around £11million to be knocked back.

Players like Jonas, Fabricio Coloccini, Shola Ameobi and Steven Taylor all knew Kinnear from his first stint as boss in 2008/09.

Yet Kinnear never really got to know the players this time around.

However a source close to one of the Newcastle players told the Chronicle in an exclusive interview: “The players didn’t really have much to do with Joe - they never seen him around the training ground.

“Nobody fully understood what his role was at the club.

“He certainly didn’t attend training sessions and despite him saying he’d have an office at the training ground when he first arrived, none of the lads has many dealings with him.”

And it has emerged that there was a lot of bemusement at Kinnear’s arrival last June - when he took it upon himself to tell the world he’d arrived.

But it simply left Newcastle’s foreign legion scratching their heads.

The player source said: “They didn’t know anything about him.

“When he managed Wimbledon all that time ago, some of the lads were still wearing nappies.

“He didn’t have the authority of a big name coming in and he didn’t have a lot to back up his bold claims with as far as the modern football world is concerned.”

Kinnear, sadly, will be remembered for getting a host of player names wrong like Sammy Ameobi, Cabaye, Papiss Cisse and Hatem Ben Arfa.

He branded the playmaker “Ben Arfree” and Cabaye as “Kebab” and Ameobi as “Anamobie”.

That even prompted Sammy Ameobi to Tweet at the time: ‘Wow, at least get my name right.’

And it didn’t go down well with the players.

The source continued in his interview with the Chronicle: “It rubbed a lot of the lads up the wrong way.

“Alan Pardew called the players into a meeting at the start of Kinnear’s return and drew some lines in the sand as he tried to ensure the dressing room didn’t implode.

“Obviously calling Yohan “Kebab” wasn’t a smart move as he was one of the most influential players in the dressing room.”

Kinnear had also insisted last June he would keep Cabaye.

He said: “He will stay.

“We’ve got him under contract – and we want to keep all of our top players here.”

But it was soon obvious that Kinnear would not have the big role he’d talked himself up into on arrival.

He wasn’t around Paul Dummett signed a new deal last year and wasn’t pictured celebrating the deal.

And after failing to bring in stars like Remy Cabella from Montpellier and Clement Grenier from Lyon, his credibility took several dents in January.

When Luuk De Jong was unveiled after signing on loan, Kinnear was also left out of the photo call.

Therefore the only picture he was involved in was the day Loic Remy signed.

And that snapshot has turned out to be a rare collector’s item - for all the wrong reasons.

More reaction:

Timeline of Joe Kinnear's career and time on Tyneside

'It's good riddance to bad rubbish: Lee Ryder's reaction

Alan Shearer 'not surprised' at Kinnear departure

Newcastle United tight lipped on Joe Kinnear's departure

'I heard the news today, oh boy!': NUFC fans react to Joe Kinnear's resignation

Lee Ryder: Newcastle will take stock after Kinnear-gate - and boy, they need to after staggering from one mistake to the next