How to insult your club's greatest ever player*
If Mike Ashley eventually does turn to Alan Shearer to haul Newcastle United out of the brown stuff - Big Al would every right to reply with a big fat no given that it would be the ultimate insult.
In doing so, he'd probably be cutting his nose off to spite his face but Shearer's life has been turned upside down in the last six months and the comments from his close pal Rob Lee today merely underline that Ashley has never had any intention of bringing back the legendary number 9.
Many fans have suspected for months exactly what Lee is implying in his latest outburst.
Lee said: "I think he [Shearer] is getting ****** off with it.
"It's been going on too long. My gut feeling is I can't see Mike Ashley having him back and I can't see Alan working for him again.
"I'd be surprised if that happened."
He went on to add: "Nobody knows the truth apart from Mike Ashley.
"He is the only one who knows how many bids he's had, how much they were for and whether he's willing to sell.
"As a businessman, he doesn't want to take a massive loss.
"As long as he doesn't sell, it's a paper loss."
In my opinion, Ashley has always gambled since taking over at Newcastle and the current situation is no different.
It would be fantastic if Newcastle keep on winning under Chris Hughton but there is no long-term plan.
Where is the long-term vision?
The whole thing is complete gamble.
As Lee points out in his interview, Shearer had a plan but that would have cost money.
All of it leaves Newcastle fans in the same state as they were on the day the club went up for sale - not least the man himself in Shearer.
*The club's greatest ever player in my humble opinion
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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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Maybe Ashley looked at Shearers record, as manager,last season and decided it just wasnt good enough ? Particularly the last game of the season when he failed to motivate the team sufficiently to get more than one shot on target during 90 minutes of play in what was a relegation decider.
There is little point speculating about Shearer's reaction because there is no chance of Ashley offering him the job. Lee, isn't it about time the Chronicle and Journal had another trip up to St. James's to see our friend Derek. I'm sure you will have no shortage of suggested questions from fellow Newcastle supporters...
AndyMac and any others who blame Al for us going down, are just ignorant buffoons, who know anything about football what so ever at all.
we are in for a hard season with out a doubt promotion will not happen guaranteed.
Lee, I don't know where you get the idea from that Shearer would be doing any better than the current caretaker regime. With all due respect for the great man: Calling on Shearer was a massive gamble that didn't pay off first time. Why try again until he's had some managing credentials?
The brown stuff to get us out of at the moment is called "top of the table". Chris Hughton is doing fine, make him permanent manager and he can start developping a long-term plan of his own. The transfer failure of late wasn't down to the manager but to the limbo the entire club is in. No player is going to sign in this situation,
Dave Robson - I think AndyMac had a point. Shearer had 1 win in 8 games while Hughton last term had 1 win in 9 games, pretty similar record if you ask me and yet Hughton was ridiculed at the time and Shearer is immune from critism. But going back to AndyMacs point, Shearer had one game, with a full squad bar Bassong to motivate a team to secure the win that was needed to stay in the PL, and failed big time. And for someone who was at that game I was horrified by the performance on show by Newcastle and ashamed of my team for the first time in nearly 20 years. Yet still Shearer is seen by many as the man to take us forward or back to the promise land, yet I believe he has done nothing to warrent that chance. Newcastle United have not made a sensible mangerial appoinment since 1999 when they appointed Bobby Robson.
I don't see how Shearer coming back now can improve things. I do not blame him entirely for Newcastle being relegated but I dont think he made any difference when he came in other than to make players give up entirely.
He had little effect on the likes of Owen, and young players like Guthrie and R.Taylor who, whilst still making mistakes are beginning to shine, disappeared under Shearer last season. For me he did little other than point the finger at how bad everything was and whose fault it was. Shearer is a big character, who attracts a lot of attention. I think Newcastle are better off with someone who quietly gets on with things - current caretakers.
The players are happy and playing well, we are top of the table and unbeaten - don't fix what isn't broken. Stability is what is needed, anyone coming in now would change things and at this moment it is not needed (I mean on the pitch obviously)
Why is everyone going on about Shearer? Almost everybody i have spoken to agrees that the style of play and performances were, at best, the same! Granted he had to take over a squad with an entire season of under performaces, takeover talks, JFK etc. It was a horrible season for all concerned, even the overpaid players. I don't think there was much Shearer could do, but i do think he could have done better. At least with Hughton in charge there is no rift between the owner and the team, there is no slagging off in the papers. Right now thats what we need, I think CH is a good man and he deserves our respect for at least showing some care for this club. When it come for him to stand down i think he deserves a very earned pat on the back. But i think our thoughts should be maybe looking at Lee Clarks progress. While the club is with Ashley though, it has to be managed by CH, if not for the good job he is doing, but it offers us at least something in the guise of stability.
Who knows if Shearer is going to be good, bad or indifferent? However, if he is going to get managerial experience then the inference is that he should get it in the lower divisions - which is where we are so why not? If someone other than Shearer gets the job then the Shearer shadow is always going to be there. In which case why not appoint him now. It'll prove things one way or the other and any future manager - if there needs to be one - won't have that shadow.
One reason I suspect that Shearer wasn't appointed by Ashley is that he did have a plan that would have meant Ashley spending some money. Hughton hasn't been given that "opportunity" so was an easy choice. I would hope that a new appointment would only take the job if he is allowed to manage.
remember all you hughton admirers that roeder started like this.
Rumour has it MA has told UEFA & FIFA that he poached some of the young players in the squad. This way he has a good excuse to not buy any players once Newcastle get banned like Chelsea!
hello lee ryder..first just wanna say i just watched the video of you talking about the situation at newcastle and i must say i appologise for anything i said about you and the evening chronicle obviously as seen in your video you are very much as sick as the rest of us in the whole ashleygate affair my comments about you and the evening chronicle were un-just obviously i was very frustrated by the whole situation as like the rest of the fans and didnt realise that you were in the same boat as us in the knowledge of what was acctually going on at our beloved club.so with that i say SORRY i hope you can except my apology .on the video i watched great video excellent points a year has gone by and still we are left in the dark...it is fast becoming that we the geordies are a laughing stock of the game and the only way it seems we can keep people quite is by winning games but i fear we have along season a head and how long can chris hougton keep this up for with the very very weakend squad we have.
glenn mactaggert born bread in walker
brought up in cramlington
living in ohio usa
our blood is not red
its black and white forever
Lee, The brown stuff??? We are top of the championship by two points hows that the brown stuff? yes we should be in the premership, but not even the club's greatest hero could stop that!! At the moment we are in the best posiiton we can by for the time being, if its not broken why fix it!
..."how to insult the clubs GREEDIEST ever player"
It doesn't help that he priced himself out of the running with his ludicrous wage demands.
God only knows how much BBC are having to pay him.
NAGB.
Apart from that, I'm sure he is just the right man to take us forward. Pah!
Why does it make Roeder any more qualified because "at least he was club captain". This is the insular nonsense we need to get rid of if we are going to improve. Did Ferguson play for Man U? Was Jose Mourinho anything more than a journeyman player? Did Capello ever wear an England shirt?
Whenever you use the word messiah etc. it just compromises your argument. We need radical chane in the ownership of the club and a solid managerial structure not some divine intervention.
What matters is who is the best man for the job who can give us stabiity to build on. I think that Hughton is doing a very good job and while he may not be the long term answer I saw nothing at the end of the year to suggest Shearer was.