New Newcastle United football chief Joe Kinnear insists he was not to blame for their relegation in 2009.

Newcastle were relegated that season but Kinnear was keen to absolve himself from blame.

He said: "When I took over we were third from bottom, we were lying 12th when I had my heart attack and we were flying - you could get a million to one on that we were staying up.

"I had the heart attack, I don't really like talking about it, and from there we got relegated. I think the people in and around that club were trying to implicate me in the fact we got relegated when actually it was a load of crap.

"If I'd still been there that would never happened - just for the record, I've never been manager at a club that's got relegated."