'My phone has gone crazy': Joe Kinnear bombarded with messages after joining Twitter

Kinnear had a spell in charge at St James's Park between 2008 and 2009 before returning as the club's director of football four years later.

He proved to be a controversial figure, with one of his most memorable moments being his first press conference, when he swore 52 times at journalists.

The Irishman also kicked off his spell as director of football with a radio interview, in which he mispronounced the name of several players, including star midfielder Yohan Cabaye as 'Yohan Kebab'.

One of his opening tweets wished Newcastle well in their opening Championship match at Fulham on Friday night, and earlier today, when his following began to shoot up, he posted: "Somebody let me know how to turn off notifications! Phone has gone crazy! JK."

A long line of messages have been sent to Kinnear, who has also managed the likes of Wimbledon, Nottingham Forest and Luton Town.

Many of them refer to the infamous radio interview, with tweets including "Yohan Kebab", "Ben Afro", "DON'T SELL KEBAB, YOHAN KEBAB!", "Darek Lambezi's black and white army" and "Charles Insomnia", which relates to his spell as manager, when he mispronounced the name of midfielder Charles N'Zogbia.

Others have teased Kinnear about his statement four years ago that he could pick up the phone to any Premier League manager for advice, any time.

David Bell tweeted: "Mourinho is trying to contact you for some advice."

Another poster added: "It must be all those top top managers you have on speed dial offering you top top players."