JOE Kinnear is the director of football for Newcastle United, one of England's most famous soccer clubs.

He's also known for being embarrassingly mistake-prone. Not that any of his previous errors quite measure up to this one. The British press reports that Mr Kinnear recently tried to sign a player his club already owned.

Mr Kinnear attended a match between two other clubs, Birmingham City and Swansea, in September. He was impressed by the performance of a 22-year-old midfielder called Shane Ferguson.

So, Mr Kinnear approached Birmingham officials to flag his interest in signing Ferguson, The Sunday People reports.

"Ferguson had a particularly good game that night and Joe Kinnear told one of our officials he was interested in signing him," a Birmingham source told The Sunday People.

"At first our guy thought he was joking, but then he realised Kinnear did not know Ferguson was already a Newcastle player," the source said.

Ferguson was on loan to Birmingham when Mr Kinnear saw him play. Specifically, on loan from Newcastle. Mr Kinnear was registering his interest to buy a player he already owned.

A source close to Mr Kinnear claims the conversation never took place.

The man has a history of embarrassing moments. He once referred to Newcastle player Charles N'Zogbia as "Charles Insomnia", leading the Frenchman to say he would "never play for him again".

In a radio interview this year, Mr Kinnear called another of his club's players, Yohan Cabaye, "Yohan Kebab".

He has also referred to Newcastle winger Sammy Ameobi as "Sammy Amamobi".

We suspect the Ferguson incident will do nothing to improve Mr Kinnear's reputation.

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