Joe Kinnear has dismissed Charles N’Zogbia as a fantasist after the former France Under-21 international issued a sharp critique of recent events at Newcastle United, a club he portrayed as lacking control and discipline. On another day of embarrassing publicity at St James’ Park, Shay Given, a second former player, described his treatment at the hands of Newcastle’s hierarchy as “disgusting”.

While N’Zogbia’s comments will be regarded with suspicion by Newcastle supporters, particularly in the light of the new Wigan Athletic winger’s serial whingeing during his spell on Tyneside, Given has always inspired affection from fans. If there are those who are understandably distressed by his defection to Manchester City, the feeling has been mutual.

Given was distraught at the departure of Kevin Keegan, as well as Newcastle’s direction under Mike Ashley, the club’s owner, and ultimately submitted a transfer request in an attempt to push through his £5.9 million move to City. Having served the club for 12 years, the Ireland goalkeeper does not believe that his situation was handled sensitively.

“I felt the way they dealt with the whole thing was a bit disgusting,” Given said. “The way they dealt with my family and me, I felt they could have made it a little easier to be honest. But that’s the way they dealt with it and I’ll move on now. I’d like to thank the fans of Newcastle, they’ve always been fantastic over the years to me and I’ll always be grateful for the support they’ve given me.

“I’d like to separate the supporters from the people who are running the club. The fans were absolutely amazing to me, but I just felt that the people who dealt with the whole situation could have been more helpful.”

N’Zogbia, if anything, was more damning, painting an unsympathetic picture of Kinnear’s management techniques. The relationship between the two men broke down irrevocably when Kinnear referred to N’Zogbia as “Insomnia” during a television interview — mistakenly, according to the Irishman — although the player had already alienated team-mates with a public courtship of other clubs.

“I think the place is fine, but it needs someone who can control the club properly,” N’Zogbia said. “Here Steve Bruce controls everything and that’s what you need. If you go to a club and you don’t know who’s in charge then you really don’t know what’s going on. He [Kinnear] might talk to some players, but not to everyone.

“I wasn’t really happy at Newcastle. There was no conversation with the manager. I was playing but when you are young you need somebody to tell you what to do. I can only tell you how I felt. When Kevin Keegan was at the club everything was fine, but then we played three or four weeks without a manager and no one was saying anything. A lot of players were thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

It was not an interpretation that Kinnear — who will delay deciding whether to accept a new two-year contract offer until Newcastle’s league status is secure — recognised. “It’s laughable,” the former Wimbledon manager said. “He lived in a fantasy world. There was not a day when he didn’t add some Mickey Mouse story about a club that wanted him.

“First of all, he came in and told me Arsenal wanted to buy him, then the next week it was Aston Villa, then the next week, it was Manchester United, then the next week it was Real Madrid, then the next week it was Lyons.

“And each time he came in, he made it clear he did not want to be at the club so in the end, there was only one thing I could do — send him to Wigan. I checked out if any of these clubs wanted him and discovered they didn’t. I told him, ‘You are wasting my time and I don’t know why you are inventing all these stories.’ ”