Boss Kinnear struggling to cope with his Toon battles

Joe Kinnear has revealed his frustration over his Newcastle squad, which is the subject of transfer speculation and has been ravaged by injuries.

Manchester City have shown an interest in goalkeeper Shay Given while Tottenham have had a bid for his back-up, Steve Harper, rejected.

Kinnear is also having to deal with a lengthy injury list, which left him with only 13 senior players available for last week's FA Cup replay against Hull City.

"I didn't expect to have so many players injured," said Kinnear. "And I didn't expect to be fighting off so many other clubs to keep our players. I don't want to say more than that on the subject, but these are difficult times."

Kinnear was initially appointed on a temporary basis following Kevin Keegan's resignation in September but has now been offered an extended two-year contract by Mike Ashley.

"I have to be aware of which direction the club wants to go in," said Kinnear.

"There's a fair amount of players we need at the moment and I want to make sure we're in a position to do that. We need to look at the situation and say, 'Where do we go from here?'"