Joe Kinnear has shown 'street cunning' as well as being abrasively direct with the media. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images

Of the four old-timers managing Premier League clubs - Alex Ferguson, who will be 67 on New Year's Eve, his friend Joe Kinnear, who was 62 yesterday, and the 61-year-olds Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp - Kinnear is arguably the least reconstructed. He still uses the quaint, as in "The lad from Switzerland, Christian Gross, got the job," when he referred recently to his failed attempt to become Spurs manager in 1998, and he swears boisterously in public, as in his imitation of a regimental sergeant major who had forgotten to take his bromide when he met the press in October. In many ways he is the antithesis of Rafa Benítez, the 14 years younger, thoroughly modern manager he will attempt to outwit this afternoon.

This may well have relevance to why Kinnear has made, at the very least, a half-decent job of managing Newcastle United, having taken over when St James' Park more closely resembled an asylum than a football club. Coping is easier when you are being offered £35,0000 a week to do so, but one estimate reckoned that Kinnear, always one of the game's mavericks, got the manager's job only after 25 others - including Alan Shearer, Glenn Hoddle and Terry Venables - had turned it down following Kevin Keegan's departure in September. And a fat wage packet is no compensation at all for a chalice brimful with hemlock.

The poison that filled it when he accepted the post flowed from supporters, who felt they had been fobbed off with a manager of last resort as owner Mike Ashley prepared to get shot of the club, and from a sceptical press. The media's colourfully expressed doubts merely reflected a wider astonishment that someone in his sixties, who had been out of management for four years, who had not even applied to succeed Keegan - "It was a call out of the blue, to be honest," Kinnear said - and whose health was allegedly suspect, was given the task of reburnishing one of English football's more distinguished marques.

Dave Mackay, the former Scotland international, has never had any doubts that his old Tottenham team-mate can turn things around. "He has done an excellent job at clubs that are not particularly big and, although it's a very difficult task he's taken on, I'm sure he'll handle it," Mackay says. "He just has to be allowed the chance and not, after a couple of bad results, be given the sack."

Mackay's view is increasingly shared by supporters. Three months on from Kinnear's appointment and feelings have definitely changed. Malcolm Holmes, a long-standing Newcastle fan and contributor to the Observer's Fans' Verdict, says: "Most supporters have been surprised at how Joe has steadied the ship and most people seem to have warmed to him. He wasn't the most popular appointment, but I think the phrase 'any port in a storm' came to mind when we were getting turned down by everyone.

"He has certainly tightened us up defensively. If we can kick on from here and get a couple of decent players in the window, particularly a playmaker, we should be safe. If he can persuade Michael Owen to stay beyond the end of the season I'm sure Joe will get the freedom of the city.

"Joe always comes across locally as a decent bloke and the players seem to be fond of him, which never seemed to be true of [Sam] Allardyce - Blackburn fans beware - and Keegan wasn't here long enough to know either way."

Kinnear did little to assuage the local press's misgivings about his appointment when he won the nation's open category coarse language award for 2008 in a 13-minute tirade against them soon after he arrived in the north-east. The opening exchange of the press conference set the tone. He invited a particular writer to identify himself and told him: "You're a cunt." And so it went on with the f-word deployed so often (52 times) that his JFK nickname has stuck, with the middle initial no longer standing for "fat".

Curiously, though, while we are constantly being told standards are not what they were, it is probably the case that the use of bad language by footballers was at its height when Kinnear was playing and it is simply a habit with him that has refused to die (whereas Keegan, say, has hardly ever been known to swear). Jimmy Hill, who filled most roles in football from player to club chairman in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, recalls Kinnear fondly. "There is a sort of happiness about him," he says. "Everything you hear about him is more flattering than discrediting." Hill also talks nostalgically about the language that once bound professionals together.

Hill says his Christian background meant he never swore as a boy or young adult - and no longer does - but "when I found myself among fellow professionals my language tended to be as bad as what I was listening to. It was the everyday language of football". Hill laughs when he recalls a game he played for Fulham in the 50s, in which Tosh Chamberlain was cautioned by the referee for swearing at his own captain, Johnny Haynes. There was a crackdown on bad language at the time, but Chamberlain shouted back at the official: "Don't be a cunt ref, he's on my side."

Kinnear is of that time and his outburst on 2 October, in response to criticism of his giving the players a day off right at the start of his regime, was a throwback to a period when swearing was commonplace - and reporters did not have tape recorders from which they could accurately transcribe prolonged diatribes. Equally in keeping was that Kinnear moved on quickly after his cathartic rant, even if he did introduce the ceasefire with one of those sudden turnabouts that are another of his specialities. The following Sunday, moments after telling television viewers "I won't be doing the press any more while I'm at the club", Kinnear walked into the press room to chat with journalists about the 2-2 draw at Everton. He asked them: "What's wrong, can't you take a joke?"

"Since then he has been fine," says Simon Bird, the Daily Mirror journalist who took the first hit when Kinnear flipped. "He's answered the questions, he's sat and talked - he's sort of loosened up and been a bit more lighthearted and jokey. He's not been over-friendly or over-charming, but he has answered the questions."

The downside for journalists to Kinnear's loosening up has been that the manager tends to use language for language's sake and sees no real need to give them reliable information. A number of writers have attested to his habit of "saying one thing one day and completely the opposite the next" and "being elastic with the facts".

Kinnear's relationship with those behind the scenes at St James' Park has also had its tense moments. His record of 18 points from 13 Premier League matches since taking charge - the first six League games of the season had yielded only four points - may have pleased nearly everyone, but the new manager caused upset when appearing to disparage Keegan, who still has a number of admirers at the club. In a rare one-on-one national newspaper interview last month, Kinnear said: "Previous training was more or less the old five-a-sides and head tennis." If it was not intended as a slight, it was certainly perceived as such by some of the Keegan faithful.

Generally, though, Kinnear's inside approval rating has risen steadily and he is said to be particularly good at dealing with Ashley, who hired him initially for a month, but will now keep him until the end of the season at least. One close observer of the club put it bluntly: "They share a sort of street cunning."

Dublin-born Kinnear, who came to England when he was seven - "My dad died when I was young and my mum brought up five on a council estate in Watford" - first made an impression as a player with St Albans City. His talent as a defender was quickly recognised and, in 1963, aged 17, he moved as an amateur to Tottenham, where for a decade after turning professional, he was a crowd favourite as a dashing full back.

Mackay was one of the older players at Spurs when Kinnear arrived and his mentorship soon turned into a firm friendship that has lasted to this day. "Joe is a good pal of mine," Mackay says. "We used to go to the Walthamstow dogs after the games at Tottenham. We were small-time gamblers and would lose our money together." Mackay describes Kinnear as an honest player who would run all day. "You always knew if he was in the team you had a good chance."

After Kinnear retired as a player he teamed up again with Mackay at clubs the Scot was managing, first in the Middle East and then at Doncaster Rovers. "He was an excellent coach," Mackay says. "He was a very tough guy and if he wanted something putting over he'd put it over, 100%. Anyone who tried to mess about would be in trouble."

Kinnear's own managerial career began properly at Wimbledon in 1992, which was the start of a successful association that ended after Kinnear suffered a mild heart attack in 1999. He returned in 2001 to manage Luton and later Nottingham Forest, but after resigning from Forest in 2004 he did not work again until his surprise Newcastle appointment in September.

One of his key beliefs as a manager is the importance of team spirit and while he can be a hard task master in training he puts as much effort into creating this unity. Marvin Johnson, a stalwart at Luton for 15 years, remembers Kinnear's reign particularly fondly. "He always ranted and raved and swore a lot, but never bore a grudge. He was a player's man who loved being one of the lads and joining us on outings. A day out at the races was one of his favourites. I remember a fantastic afternoon at Sandown. We had a box and at no point did we feel, 'Watch out for the gaffer over there'. He was always one of us."

Kinnear's influence on the training ground receded once he became a manager. Johnson says: "He never missed training, he would be there every day, but he would delegate running the sessions to others." Occasionally, rumour has it, this would enable him to slip off to watch racing on TV. There are stories too, though, that at Newcastle he has a hands-on approach in the very literal sense that he physically moves players around the training ground, helping to avoid any struggles with the language barrier.

His habit of making all of his players feel wanted, if needs be taking them aside for confidence-boosting chats, has already had its successes. It is credited with having revived Shola Ameobi's career at Newcastle after Keegan wanted to get rid of the former England under-21 striker

On the pitch, the current Newcastle team are witness to Kinnear's pragmatic approach. He encourages players to express themselves as best they can and avoids too much dogma. By inclination a devotee of the passing game who has spoken out against route-one football, he is not so entrenched that he does not acknowledge its possibilities. Route-one goals have served Kinnear well over the years.

If this afternoon's match had taken place three months ago, Newcastle fans might have been thinking up excuses to give it a miss. Not any more