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Joe Kinnear
Personal information
Full name	Joseph Patrick Kinnear
Date of birth	December 27, 1946 (age 60)
Place of birth	Dublin, Ireland
Playing position	Defender
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1965-1975 1975-1976	Tottenham Hotspur Brighton & Hove Albion	196 (2) 016 (1)
National team
1967-1975	Republic of Ireland	025 (0)
Teams managed
1992-1999 2001-2003 2004	Wimbledon Luton Town Nottingham Forest
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Joe Kinnear (born December 27, 1946 in Dublin) is a football manager.

Joe Kinnear played football as a full back for Tottenham Hotspur and the Republic of Ireland national team. Kinnear played for Spurs for ten years, playing in the 1966/1967 F.A. Cup final against Chelsea, a game Tottenham won 2-1. Kinnear made almost 200 appearances for Tottenham and he was capped 26 times by the Republic of Ireland. In 1975, Kinnear moved to Brighton, making 16 appearances before retiring.

Contents 1 Management 1.1 Wimbledon 1.2 Luton Town and Nottingham Forest 1.3 Managerial Record 2 Public Spats

Kinnear is perhaps more well known for his success as manager of Wimbledon during his tenure. Kinnear was appointed manager following Peter White's dismissal in January 1992. Kinnear led the Dons to a 6th place finish in the Premier League in the 1993/94 season. The next season Kinnear continued to defy the odds and Wimbledon finished 9th in the league. The achievements are made even more respectable considering the Dons had no home of their own and had a small transfer budget.

It is reported that Kinnear turned down the chance to take over from Jack Charlton as manager of the Republic of Ireland team. The job eventually went to Mick McCarthy. Kinnear, however, took Wimbledon to both the major domestic cup competitions, the F.A. Cup and the League Cup, semi-finals in 1997 as well as finishing 8th in the Premier League. Kinnear contiuned in his role as Wimbledon until he suffered a heart attack before a league game against Sheffield Wednesday in the 1998/99 season. He was replaced at Wimbledon by Egil Olsen in June 1999, and the Dons were relegated from the Premier League during that season.

Kinnear was then briefly involved as Director of Football at Oxford United during the 2000/01 season. However, in January 2001 he resigned due to poor health, yet just a few weeks later he was handed a similar role at Luton Town, who were battling against relegation from what was the Second Division, as were Oxford. On arrival, Kinnear demoted current manager Lil Fuccillo and appointed himself manager of the team.

However, Kinnear could not save the club from relegation, despite purchasing striker Steve Howard for £50,000 on transfer deadline day. In the summer of 2001, Kinnear released the majority of the relegated squad, and brought in a number of his own men over the course of the season, including then captain Kevin Nicholls, future captain Chris Coyne and along with winger Jean-Louis Valois. The team stormed to promotion under Kinnear's guidance, finishing runners-up to Plymouth Argyle in the Hatters first promotion in 20 years.

The next season was disappointing for the Hatters, as they were expected to compete for promotion, but in the end they only managed a 9th place finish. In May 2003, the club was sold to a consortium led by John Gurney, and Kinnear and his assistant Mick Harford were then sacked in mysterious circumstances, which involved an employee of Northampton Town being the person who signed the letters which dismissed both Kinnear and Harford.

Kinnear was out of work until Nottingham Forest offered him the managers job in February 2004. Kinnear kept the club up, but a poor start to the 2004/05 season meant he was dismissed in December 2004.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D
Wimbledon		January 19, 1992	May 30, 1999	364	130	125	109
Luton Town		February 08, 2001	May 23, 2003	122	56	38	28
Nottingham Forest		February 10, 2004	December 16, 2004	44	15	14	15

Kinnear's style of management has seen him anger fans from clubs such as Oxford City following his manner of exit, Plymouth Argyle for his comments about Plymouth as a place during Plymouth and Luton's title race during the 2001/02 season, and also Sheffield United because of his criticism of them and their manager Neil Warnock. Many Luton fans also dislike Kinnear following his comments about the club following his move to Nottingham Forest.