Joe Kinnear has seen and done it all, he has dealt with a Kray as well as the “Crazy Gang”, so the reaction to that expletive-laden brush with a few sassy reporters wouldn’t faze him.

The interim manager of Newcastle United is staying in the same hotel used by both his predecessors, he has Kevin Keegan’s old room as well as his job and is having the problems that afflicted Sam Allardyce last season: stratospheric expectation levels at a club that last won the league in 1927 and subterranean patience.

Kinnear could not believe the animosity on his arrival. At his introductory press conference he was asked if he was going for his third heart attack. Taken aback by what he called “the hatred” in the room, he replied: “You’ll [expletive deleted] have one in a minute if you keep on like that.” The outburst that followed was the product of the disrespect shown to a man whose record warrants the opposite.

Kinnear was voted manager of the year by his peers after his first full season in charge at Wimbledon, 1993-94, ahead of Keegan and Alex Ferguson. The Dons had finished sixth on an average attendance of 10,474.

He kept homespun, underfunded Wimbledon in the top 10 of the Premier League in 1994-95 and a nationwide poll of fans saw him named Sky TV manager of the year for 1996-97, when the club were eighth in the league and semi-finalists in the FA and Coca-Cola Cups.

On the day of the heart attack that nearly killed him, at Hillsborough on March 3, 1999, Wimbledon were sixth, having just beaten Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham. Without him they got just two points in their last 11 matches and finished 16th. They were relegated the following season and it has been mainly downhill since.

Kinnear returned to win promotion from the fourth tier with Luton in 2001-02, only to be sacked by new owners 12 months later and after saving Nottingham Forest from relegation from the second tier in 2004 he quit when the board insisted on selling his best players against his wishes. This is the experienced campaigner whose recruitment by Newcastle was scorned by a press pack so offended by his language they printed every word, in fit-of-the-vapours horror. They would have been braver if their newspapers had done it to Sir Alex Ferguson, whose foul-mouthed rants at the press are legendary. Of course, they wouldn’t risk a ban by Manches-ter United.

We were supposed to meet for lunch at Kinnear’s plush digs in the Jesmond district of the city but by the time he had finished supervising his second training session of the day it was 3pm and food was forgotten amid a flood of reminiscence.

There was the afternoon in a Dublin pub when we had to dissuade a steaming Vinnie Jones from biting off Alan Mullery’s nose, the time Dave Mackay knocked out Terry Ven-ables during training at Spurs, John Fashanu doing likewise to Lawrie Sanchez at Wimbledon, the worrying exchange of correspondence with, and placatory gifts to, Ronnie Kray in Broad-moor after Kinnear had joked that he would be signing the infamous twins.

Two months shy of 62, Newcastle’s latest pilot looks good, but as he sits down his pockets rattle with boxes of medication for the heart trouble that has left him in constant need of blood thinning. He is reluctant to admit it, but the doubts over his health rather than his ability have deterred would-be employers. This is his last chance to convince the people who matter he is well enough to cope with the rigours of top-flight management again. He has no illusions, he was the last resort. But what is there to lose?

He’ll walk away £500,000 to the good and the least that can happen is that other potential employers will be reminded he is still around. Kinnear says: “After leaving Forest I was driven mad, hearing that people were saying, ‘He’s got a dodgy ticker, he’s got to take it easy’. It’s rubbish. Without the tablets I suffer from blood clots but I’m feeling great. I don’t mind being judged on results, but let’s forget the medical thing.”

Critics have claimed he owes the job to Dennis Wise, ex-Wimbledon, who is director of football at St James’ Park. Not true, Kinnear insists. “I got a phone call from my agent, Jonathan Barnett, who told me, ‘You can expect to hear from Mike Ashley, about Newcastle’,” he says. “Mike then belled me and said, ‘Can you come round to my house tomor-row?’ So we had a chat. He said, ‘I’ve offered the job to Terry Ven-ables and he’s blown me out. He didn’t want it unless he got a contract for a minimum of 12 months, but I won’t be here in 12 months, I’m selling up and the next people who come in might want Kevin back’.

“Ashley said, ‘The maximum number of games you’ll have is 10 and it might be less but I’ll give you a contract for 10’. Apparently they’d offered the job to every Tom, Dick and Harry before they got to me but so what? I said, ‘Okay, 10 games is fine’.

Whatever happens, it’s a great chance for me to put my name back in the frame and, if I do a good job, who knows what might be around the corner?” Appointed 48 hours before the match at home to Black-burn a fortnight ago, he intended to leave the caretaker, Chris Hughton, in control, but that plan lasted just 45 minutes. Deeply concerned by a flaccid display, he took charge at the interval, to galvanising effect.

What had he said at half-time? “I walked in and introduced myself. All the boys were very quiet and I told them, ‘You’ve shot yourselves in the foot here, but that’s behind us, it’s about what you do in the second half. Let’s get rid of the fear factor. You wouldn’t be at Newcastle if you didn’t have ability. All the fans want to see is everybody working for one another and wanting the ball. Get a goal and you can win it’.

“It was quiet for a moment, then Nicky Butt said, ‘You’re right, gaffer’. It was the first time any of them had called me gaffer. I told them, ‘I want to see a 100% improvement on the first half, I don’t ever want to see any of that crap again’. They went out and scored, dominated the game and could easily have got a result. Afterwards I said, ‘I’m delighted with that. I’ve been fighting relegation battles since I left the glory days behind as a player at Tottenham and I’ve seen enough to say we’ll be okay. We’ll get it right on the training ground, we’ll work hard, get back into good habits and we’ll get the place up and jumping again’.

“With Chris Hughton, who’s a good coach, I began by working where we needed to tighten up, defending. We did lots of sessions on stopping the danger at source, cutting out crosses going into our box, and a lot of technical stuff on when who should be where, and so forth.”

His first match officially in charge was at Everton last Sunday. “I spend probably two hours a day at the training ground, watching clips of other teams, analysing the opposition, and I told my lot, ‘They’ve got a weak link, they don’t cover the back post, they all get sucked in to the near post, we can catch them out’.”

He was right. Again Newcastle went two goals behind. The manager was down in the dressing room, preparing his half-time address, when Steven Tay-lor scored with a far-post header. Damien Duff equalised a minute after the interval. Kinnear says: “We had two cleared off the line and afterwards the team came in annoyed we hadn’t won. The attitude had gone from, ‘Oh well, another loss’ to high fives, slapping each other to salute our comeback. If I’d wanted to be negative I could have said we’d missed a great chance to win the game but I’m a positive person and I told them, ‘We’ve stopped the rot, it’s not six on the spin, I’m one game undefeated, my record’s not bad, eh?’

“When they’d stopped chuckling, I said, ‘Seriously, d’you know what I’d like to do? I want to leave this club like I am now, undefeated’.”

If old Joe stays that way, “Special K” faces a long wait before he returns to that Jesmond hotel.

Travelling man: Kinnear’s life in football

December 1946 Born in Dublin.

1965 Joins Tottenham, where he wins FA Cup and two League Cup medals

1975 Joins Brighton

1977 Career ended by a knee injury. Has five years managing in Dubai, where he works with Dave Mackay. After three months running Indian national team he joins Mackay at Doncaster. Becomes manager when Mackay leaves but is replaced by new owners

1991 Offered a new role as Wimbledon’s reserve team coach

1992 Appointed Wimbledon manager, the club bottom with 12 games left. They finish 13th and Kinnear gets a five-year contract

1997 Leads Wimbledon to semi-finals of FA Cup and League Cup, almost earning a Uefa Cup berth

March 1999 Suffers a heart attack at Hillsborough. Stands down in June

2001 Joins Luton and wins promotion the following season but leaves in 2003

February 2004 Becomes manager of Nottingham Forest but resigns in December

September 26, 2008 Appointed interim Newcastle manager until the end of October

October 5, 2008 Newcastle fight back from 2-0 down against Everton down to draw 2-2 in Kinnear’s first game in charge, ending a run of five consecutive defeats