Shearer's survival plan unveiled
Alan Shearer kept it straight and to the point after Newcastle United's victory over Middlesbrough as his much maligned Magpies finally grabbed their first win for Big Al and kept alive hopes of avoiding the drop.
Those who felt that United were already dead and buried could yet be proven wrong but the serious nature of Newcastle's awful plight has not gone away.
For now, we focus on finishing off the emergency salvage job put in place by Shearer and Iain Dowie with three points against Fulham and good results elsewhere on Saturday almost certain to be enough to save Premier League status for the black and whites.
No matter what happens this summer there will be a post-mortem at St James's Park.
It's obvious that Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias have been badly advised and shown an incredible amount of naivety along the way.
At times it's been a complete farce to put it charitably.
But if the Toon tycoon wants Newcastle to become the great force it once was, he must speculate to accumulate and offer Shearer the right package for next season that can make sure this terrible situation is avoided again in the future.
And if Saturday is the day that the Mags climb out of the brown stuff after the season from hell, the sooner Shearer is tied down as permanent manager the better as far as Newcastle United are concerned.
Yes, even after just one win and five weeks of stamping his authority at a club that was almost in ruins before April 1.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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Super win last night.
Shearer is a MUST for next season. Win against Fulham and job done by Big Al.
If you've just about calmed down from last night, then get ready to get excited again! -> http://www.heavensports.com/football/newcastle-boost-premier-league-survival-chances/
Shearer is MUST for next season.
Win against Fulham and it's job done by Big Al.
For those who have calmed down from last night's action, get ready to be excited all over again ->
http://www.heavensports.com/football/newcastle-boost-premier-league-survival-chances/
Sorry Lee but I cannot agree with your view over AS. Yes the current board is as bad as any of the worst excesses of the previous administration - and you have to wonder how that is possible ? But one thing they must have learned from this joke of a season is that the most important individual at a football club is the manager.
Appointing one unsuitable candidate after another is a recipe for disaster and has lead us to this sad point in our history.
Nobody should question AS's love for this club but allowing him to stay on as manager next season would only compound the errors of the past seasons, where untried or untested managers have come and gone with remarkable regularity.
What this club needs more than yet another newbie is a proven, trophy winning coach who can take this bunch of underachieving muppets and mould them into something vaguely resembling a professional football team.
By all means keep AS within the club but not as the main man. There are far too many others better suited to this manageemnt game.
Andy mac thats sooo wrong what you just said, we have had tried and tested managers and they havent delivered anything either.
Not untill we get players that want to play for us and are not just here for the wage packet the better it will be.
Andy Mac - What a load of cak.
Shearer is most definatly the man to lead our club forwards. He knows how to conduct himself, his judgment of character is second to none and for the first time in a very long time the hairs on the back of my kneck stood up when a NUFC manager did an interview. His pre and post match interviews on Setanta last night showed what an absolutly magnificent man Shearer is. Put this together with his obvious enthusiasm for the managers job and for me you've got the whole package. Yet you Mr Mac want tried and tested - ok lets bring someone in who knows nothing about the club and we can all sit back till we here the familiar post NUFC sacking comments that always come about when we appoint someone "tried and tested" - those comments always include "he simply didn't understand how big a club NUFC is" - well once again this is something Mr Shearer does know.
Toon moving forwards - come on the lads.
PS Lee you suprised me at how negative you sounded on setanta last night - thought you would be more jubilant - although I do understand the job isn't complete just yet.
Great performance last night, Shearer is the messiah! One note of caution tho, Middlesboro looked like they were going to score every time they went down our left flank, a better team would have scored at least one more goal lucky tho there first goal was. I dont think duffer is the answer at left back unless we plan on scoring three goals every game from now on.
Well said Andy Mac.
Shearer has come in and given them a kick up the backside that might rescue us, but we have an awful team and club structure that needs an experienced hand, or indeed hands, to come in and rebuild.
I just don't see Shearer being able to do that, but I have to admit it would be great to see him involved whilst the process takes place, perhaps coming to the fore in a couple of seasons time when he ready to manage??
Lets look at the tried and tested trophy winning Managers we have tried in the past shall we then??
Bill McGarry - League Cup with Wolves
Jim Smith - League cup with Oxford (how??)
Rudd Guillit - FA Cup(s) with Chelsea
Kenny Daglish - League titles, FA Cups, etc
Bobby Robson - As above, + all over Europe
Graeme Souness - As above, + plus Scotland
Lets be honest, we are not going to attract any top European Manager because a) We are not in London, b) We are not in Liverpool, C) We are not in Manchester and d) we are pretty rubbish at the moment!! So where is the list of remaining suitable candidates then??
Shearer is the obvious choice because he understands the club, the city and he wants us to succeed. Kenny Daglish won the double in his first season at Liverpool. Jose Morhino, instant success right from the start. Pep Guadiola isn't exactly getting off to a bad start at Barcelona is he? It is nonsense that you need to be experienced. You need to be cut out for the job and be able to Manage and motivate your players, as simple as that. Shearer is the best and propably only choice because no one else will touch us with a barge pole. He will be given time to build things up, as we are a million miles away from being a good team. Anyone one else won't be given a chance, be slagged off and hated as soon as things go wrong and will be gone after a year or less. We need stability more than anything else at the minute
"Shearer is the obvious choice because he understands the club, the city and he wants us to succeed"
Heart ruling the head time yet again. Which we fans seem to do with alarming ease. Just because Shearer understands the city, club etc doesnt mean he's got what it takes to motivate a team or out think his opponents. The Spurs, Portsmouth and Liverpool games were all examples of his naivety.
We've got Fulham at home next Saturday which would have been an easy three points in the days of SBR but Shearer has struggled to get the best out of these players and if he fails on Saturday we could be back in the bottom three with a must win game at Villa to save our sorry season.
I agree with Andy Mac let the guy learn his trade under a top class manager (please God not Kinnear)then let him loose.
It's only one game, but let's accept it for what it is: we weren't scoring - we got 3; we haven't been getting the run of the ball - which we did a few times last night; we were missing out on maximum points left, right and centre - we finally got all 3. The timing could be key in showing the players the benefits of their recent efforts and giving us some momentum.
And to Andy Mac: sorry mate - do you mean a proven, trophy winning coach like Dalglish, Gullit, "Big Sam", Souness - and even Sir Bobby? The last 3 things we've won were the Fairs Cup (Harvey), the First Division Championship (Keegan) and the Intertoto Cup - yeah, I know -(Roeder). None had any big claims to having previously been successful managers. All were former players with experience of the club... you just can't tell with Newcastle.
Agree completely that AS must remain as manager next season. Arguments of tried and tested managers just won't work, we've had far too many in recent years to suggest that they don't know the club well enough to take on the role. The only managers we've enjoyed (moderate) success under in recent years all have a close association with the club - KK and SBR. KK played here, understood the style of football the fans wanted and gave it to us; SBR has supported the Toon for the last 70 years and he knows just as much as we do the style of football we want to see WORKS. AS will be exactly the same - I agree it hasn't always been pretty since he's taken charge but its getting an awful lot better despite having a lot of dead wood in the team. The only other person who could potentially take on the role is Steve Bruce - but I think we'd all prefer Shearer.
Mike Ashley - Though you might be as skint as the rest of us, you need to get our your pocket money and give Al the money he needs to rebuild this team. We can still be a successful team - we just need to all want to move in the same direction.
Just a few 'inexperienced' managers off the top of my head who were good enough to hit the ground running
Keegan,
Rijkaard
Dalglish (slight cough)
Bilic
Van Basten
Arrigo Sacchi was a shoe salesman before he went into management with Parma!
Conversely, Mancini and Ancelloti were disasters initially.
You can pick any number of examples to support either point of view, but the fact is that the right man at the right time is what is required - and right now Shearer is that man!
Andy Mac and Michael...wot nonsense you write. Of course Shearer is the best man - the only man - for the job. Think of all the 'experienced' managers who have been brought into other teams and utterly failed - from Christian Gross at Spurs to Big Phil Scolari at Chelsea. There are dozens of examples, if you stretch your mind to it. Remember that Alex Ferguson came within one match of getting the sack at Man U, after he'd been there for (as I recall) four years without winning anything.
Shearer is the man - if they stick with him...
Thñs whole coversatñon seems a bñt poñntless. Before Shearer came ñn Kñnnear was the only manager who would come wñthñn a mñllñon mñles of the place. As for experñenced managers we have had planty and only robson and Keegan have ever enjoyed anythñng resemblñng sucess at the club. I thñnk we would be mad to get rñd of shearer now. Before he turned up we were beñng run lñke a pub team. No dñscñplñne players flñttñng ñn and out of trañnñng and basñcally takñng the pñss (look at how our ñnjurñes have magñcally cleared up when the players were forced to do extra fñtness work when they were out ñnjured). If we say thanks but no thanks to shearer now and get someone else ñn you can bet that he wñll never come back and all hñs good work wñll slowly go back to where ñt was before.
Mñke D naivety? gñve me a break. Hes barely been ñn the job long enough to know the players names let alone make a difference! I hope where you work they dont expect people to walk ñnto a job on a monday and be runnñng the place by the weekend. Its all rñght sayñng that a new manager can spur a run of good results but there isnt a team in the league that was beñng run as badly as ours and you cant turn shñt ñnto gold overnñght.
For me Shearer has learned from every mñstake he has made and is improvñng at a fantastñc rate just look at the squad changes he has made wñthout beñng able to buy anyone ( we played colo ñn every game no matter how many tñme he screwed up, shearer watched hñm play once and relegated hñm to the bench for almost every game sñnce, Ameobi was the fñrst choice under Kinnear, shearer benched hñm after a couple of games and promoted carrol and ranger, Barton screws up once and hes gone under shearer, kinnear would have gñven him a cuddle and called him misunderstood).
Most managers get an entñre season to get it rñght but being newcastle fans we expected ñt ñn 8 games!
Get real.
And Andy Mac hate to tell you this but fergie wont be leavñng Utd to manage newcastle anytñme soon. We would probably end up wñth an ince or Keane or even wise!
Hi, I agree with Stephen pencñl. It didn't take AS long to recognise who wanted to play for Newcastle, who is good enough to play for us.
Ameobi - It is sort of tradition by every previous manager to mention the importance of Ameobi. Unlike other managers, Shearer did not deceive us by mentioning his 'potential'. Numerous manager overlooked Caroll but that didn't scare AS to put him on.
Barton - You would expect the other manager to hug him and tell him he's wanted. But Big Al ...
Owen - Best mate, the ones who brought him to Newcastle. He defied the southern hacks by putting him as a reserve. It must be based on form and merit!
Colo - enough said.
I wonder why Zola when he first took over did not get the same treatment as AS by the press although he lost quite a lot of game. I guess Alan should change his name to Alain to get a better treatment from the press.
Imagine one newspaper accused Shearer of being a tyrant for ... wait ...asking the players to come on time, and penalising them for being late. But they praised Capello for being a strict disciplinarian for doing the same thing.
This is way to early to judge Shearer but didn't his type of management is similar to one Mr Ferguson, at least the way he treated the Paul McGraths and Strachans of his team?
Andy Mac, let's not go there and do that. AGAIN.
The win against Boro reminded me of that long forgotten feeling... We won! And what a game to revive those feelings!
Next up is Fulham. I beg you, Shearer and the players: FOCUS ON FULHAM. There have been many strange results in Premiership in the final weeks of seasons lately. West Ham's win at Old Trafford a couple of years ago for example, so we absolutley cannot afford to enjoy the win over The Smoggies just yet.
Come on Toon!
Shearer made some excellent decisions, namely playing Guthrie on the right and the subtitutions. He seems to be learning quickly, and if he isn't taken on full time, the momentum and hope will go.
I do not want a mediocrity who will do as Ashley tells him because he is grateful to have the job.
Lose Shearer and it could rank with losing Keegan and SBR.