Shearer could not fix his broken club

May 25 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

THE pain started almost nine months ago, a slow and lingering death which began with the sudden and controversial departure of Kevin Keegan and ended with a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa in the last game of a nauseating campaign.

Yet, there is no sense of relief for Newcastle fans who could have been put out of their misery, because most know the misery has only just begun as the catastrophic consequences of crashing into the Championship sink in.

For weeks United have lived on hope and little else, the hope that they really were too good to go down, the blind faith that things could be turned around by a manager who had never let them down for a second as a player, and the stubborn belief that someone would grant them an undeserved last-minute reprieve.

Alan Shearer, though, has failed his first test as a manager. Harsh? Perhaps, but that is precisely how a man as proud as him will see things this morning.

He has failed because he took on a challenge most would have run from. He has failed because, contrary to popular belief, he could not pull off a miracle with a wave of a magic wand.

Shearer could not save Newcastle from relegation because he could not rebuild a team in eight games and he could not transform an entire football club with a little over eight weeks of hard work.

He was an inexperienced man thrown in out of desperation because of his passion for the game and his love of a football club which was on its knees long before he returned to try to save it. He should not be cursed for that, he should be thanked for his courage.

If Newcastle are going to recover from a disastrous situation it is imperative Shearer is given the job on a permanent basis, that whatever assurances he needs to stay as manager he receives from a board which has stumbled its way through two years of poor decisions and mismanagement.

Other fans will not understand, they will point and they will laugh at the appointment of a manager with eight games of dubious experience.

But what is new? Having been mocked and ridiculed for so long, does anyone on Tyneside even care what the rest of the country thinks anymore?