Alan Shearer: “Joe Kinnear was quoted as saying no-one would be leaving Newcastle in the January transfer window.
“The rumours were there about Cabaye for months beforehand. They only just managed to hold on to him despite reported interest from Arsenal in the previous window.
“Having said all that, there’s only guy who can make those decisions. It’s not the director of football or the manager, it’s the guy [Ashley] who signs the cheques.
“No-one really understood his (Kinnear's) appointment in the first place.
“There was a complete lack of communication.
“If the club had come out and said, ‘we’re going in this direction, we’re appointing a director of football’, then people would understand.
“Instead, he [Kinnear] announced it himself.
"He got all those names wrong in the infamous talkSPORT interview.
"He explained he was going to buy all these players and then went through two transfer windows without buying anyone.
“It ended as it started. There was no communication.
"There was a simple statement that he had resigned, with no explanation as to why.
“Will they be appointing a new director of football?
"No-one really knows, that is part of the problem at Newcastle. There is never any communication to anyone.”