Eight games for Shearer is not what fans want to hear

Apr 3 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Alan Shearer is adamant he will only be Newcastle United’s manager for the next eight games but, according to chief sports writer Luke Edwards, it is difficult to see how that can be allowed to happen

NO matter how many times he was asked the same question and no matter how many times he smiled and gave the same stubborn response, nobody truly believes Alan Shearer’s reign as Newcastle United manager will end after just eight games.

For the record, Shearer repeated he would only be in charge of the team until the end of this season 14 times in a Press conference which lasted a little over 21 minutes as he was unveiled as the Magpies’ new team boss yesterday.

Shearer was clearly toeing the party line, but if his opening meeting with the media was on message in terms of the political wrangling behind the scenes at St James’s Park, it was not the message most supporters wanted to hear.

“That’s the plan, that is what I want,” said Shearer when asked once again whether he would really walk away at the end of the season if he has kept Newcastle up. “I am here for eight games and here for eight games only.

“Joe Kinnear is recovering at home and we all wish him well. What part Joe has to play for next season, or the season after that, you will have to speak to the necessary people.

“That has nothing to do with me what happens. All I am interested in is eight games and eight games only. If there is a push for me to stay after that, good.

“That is what I want. I want that. I was asked to try to keep Newcastle in the Premier League and that is my job and I have eight games to do that.

“I envisage sitting in the stands next season watching Newcastle as a Premier League football club and I will be doing everything in my power to make that happen.”

Having rejoiced at the return of their local hero for an end-of-season rescue mission, the thought of him vanishing again in just a couple of months is like being told you can marry the most beautiful woman in the world, but only have eight weeks left until you go blind.

If it is true, Shearer will be gone by the start of June, we should enjoy his short time as manager while we can and hope he does enough to preserve the Magpies’ top-flight status. However, you suspect the job will be his to turn down at the end of the season, no matter which division Newcastle find themselves in.

If United stay up, the pressure on owner Mike Ashley to make him the club’s permanent manager will be intolerable and, with season tickets to shift and corporate sponsors to attract, Shearer is his Golden Ticket.

The former Newcastle striker’s arrival has allowed United fans to not only believe in their club once more, it has, more pertinently, for the romantic in us all, dared people to dream about what it can go on to achieve.

Hope is vital for football supporters and Shearer’s return can give it to them in abundance at a time when many had begun to despair at the direction their club was heading.

With that in mind, Ashley will find it virtually impossible to allow Shearer to leave because his appointment is his chance to redeem himself after the Kevin Keegan debacle which, had he been able to find a buyer last year, would have brought his time on Tyneside to a swift and brutal conclusion.

Yet, even in the constant denials there was a hint from Shearer of a longer term project as he implied Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias would make a decision in the summer.

He said: “I want this football club to stay up and then the powers that be will decide which direction they want to go in. The important thing, as I keep stressing, is to keep them up.

“I am not any different, I feel the pain that the fans are going through. It has not been great this season but it has gone, it’s history. I don’t want to talk about what has gone. I want to talk about what is going to happen.

“The be-all and end-all is this club needs Premier League football. I don’t care how we get there. In an ideal world it would be nice and pretty, but I am not bothered how we get there and over the line, we have to keep this place up.

“It needs us to be stabilised this season and then after that, the people who run the club, can look at what direction they want to go in. But for that to happen, and for it to happen in the right way, we have to be in the Premier League.”

Should Shearer take on the job beyond the end of May it would be tough on Kinnear, although football is a business and business is ruthless.

Kinnear helped Ashley out when nobody else would by becoming interim manager back in the autumn, but that does not mean loyalty to him should come at the cost of losing the one man who gives his much-criticised regime credence again.

Kinnear believed he would be returning to Newcastle’s training ground next week to help the prepare the team for the trip to Stoke City. Instead, the 62-year-old, who is still recovering from a triple heart bypass operation at home, will stay there at least until the summer as Shearer fights to keep them in the Premier League.

Having repeated his dislike for the Continental management structure Ashley stuck by following Keegan’s exit and, with Wise gone, it is difficult to see a role for Kinnear if Shearer stays.

Shearer added: “Whether you like that role that Dennis (Wise) was in, as Derek has said, they have thanked him for his services and he has gone his own way.

“That was happening irrespective of whether I came in or not. I made feelings known earlier in the year on that side of things and directors of football.

“I am sure no one wants me to go over it again, that is my opinion, which I think everyone is entitled to. Whether it upset people I don’t know, but that was my opinion at the time.”