Should Shearer stay well clear of Toon job?
IS Alan Shearer really ready for the job of reviving Newcastle United?
More to the point, is Newcastle United ready for him?
Yes, the man knows the club. But perhaps knows it just too well.
No other would-be contender to manage the Magpies boasts a fraction of Shearer's insight into life at St James's.
It almost goes without saying, then, that none but Shearer can properly gauge the depths Newcastle now plumb.
Having pretty much seen it all at the club, he can't like what he's seeing.
And is his desire to rescue Newcastle as strong as the survival instincts which must be screaming at him to leave well alone?
Self-belief, though Shearer has it in spades, is one thing. Stone cold reality is another. Defying it is something else again. True, while he rarely acts on impulse, Shearer has let his heart rule his head once before.
But the Newcastle United for which he snubbed Manchester United was a club apparently on the up. He was the centrepiece which would complete a jaw-dropping jigsaw.
Today, the Magpies are a fractured mess. Bits lying here, there and in London.
Disunited, inside and out.
And anyone who simply assumes Shearer will bridge divides between dressing room, boardroom and terraces may have forgotten that he can be a divisive figure.
If you weren't fervently appreciative of him as a player at St James's Park, you were deemed to be against him.
Whatever the whys and wherefores, let's not forget Shearer was at the heart of the most famous rift in United's history.
And although his fierce sense of pride made him a magnificent player, it will surely dissuade him from working in partnership with, let alone beneath, Dennis Wise.
Then consider Mike Ashley's own stubborn streak -- he let Saint Kevin Keegan quit rather than ditch dirty Den -- and the prospect of him taking on Shearer and taking Newcastle off the market, as envisaged by Robert Lee, seems equally unlikely.
And yet if Ashley does want Shearer on board, he might want to get him in quick.
For what price the return of King Al when, as seems all too likely, his potentially most-trusted players have moved on?
Owen, Butt, Harper, even Given . . . each of them may be away -- on freedom of contract or otherwise -- next summer.
By then, we will know whether Ashley's intransigence has cost him a buyer and the club its Premier League status.
If things appear bleak to Shearer now, how will they look in six months?
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Alan Shearer thinks he's bigger than Newcastle United in my opinion.
His shadow has always been hanging over the club, preventing managers from doing their jobs properly.
If Shearer wasn't starting games or being subbed, he'd have a hissy fit.
Is it coincidence that, when Sir Bobby droped began to drop Shearer to rest him, that he came out and said he may have to consider his future?
Is it coincidence that when Shearer was dropped to the bench, and NUFC lost to the mackems Ruud Gullit got the sack right after?
Is it coincidence that when Sir Bobby Robson dropped Alan Shearer against villa (we lost), not long after shearer was saying he may have to consider his future, if he wasn't starting more games that Sir Bobby Robson got the sack 2 days later?
Is it coincidence that there was talk of Sir Bobby Robson having lost the dressing room after Shearer was not being started regularly or being taken off as a sub?
Is it a coincidence that Robson, Allardyce, Keegan & Kinnear have had to come out and say something about Shearer being future manager of the club due to his disruptive shadow over the club which interferes with them doing their jobs properly?
Does Alan Shearer have the balls to come out in public and say that he wants the Newcastle Job, or does he go to his pal Rob Lee and tell him to speak for him?
Does Alan Shearer have any experience as a manager of a football club at any level?
He thinks he's bigger than the club IMO and has always been a disruptive influence on the club. Ruud Gullit has said so, and I doubt that it is sour grapes from Gullit because there have been other examples. Therefore there must be a modicum of truth in what he says about Shearer.