Shearer the manager

[Happy Face 29]

Went to see him talk at Sam Jacks last night.

 

One interesting thing he said was he wanted the job 6 months ago.

 

I wonder if anyone at the club was aware of that. If so, the Kinnear appointment is all the more flabbergasting.

 

At the time he was talking about how strange the structure at the club was, it could be that the club spoke to him but refused to get rid of Wise.

 

Perhaps.

 

The claims are that Wise has had no input since before christmas though, so I'm not sure if they'd have based the appointment around him staying.

[Tooj 17]

Went to see him talk at Sam Jacks last night.

 

One interesting thing he said was he wanted the job 6 months ago.

 

I wonder if anyone at the club was aware of that. If so, the Kinnear appointment is all the more flabbergasting.

What else did he have to say?

[Happy Face 29]

Went to see him talk at Sam Jacks last night.

 

One interesting thing he said was he wanted the job 6 months ago.

 

I wonder if anyone at the club was aware of that. If so, the Kinnear appointment is all the more flabbergasting.

What else did he have to say?

 

Nowt much that we haven't heard before. He only did 40 minutes and spent most of the time talking up how important the fans are going to be. I got the distinct feeling the scarves, flags, cards are something he's pushed for knowing we can make a difference, but we need something to get us going in the first place.

 

He set my mind at ease about his management ability in that I had worried he'd be like Keane. I always thought Keane's main problem was commanding the respect of a premier league quality player. He's got no managerial pedigree whatsoever, but he can cut it in the lower leagues having done things as a player none of them could. Moving up to the top flight though, he's clearly got a chip on his shoulder with these players on twice as much as he ever was that he perceives to be not performing. He leaves his best players on the bench and selects effort over ability out of spite. Asked about the silly money players were on though he just brushed by the question because which player gets paid what doesn't interest him in the slightest. He was the most expensive signing because someone was daft enought to pay that money and it's got nothing to do with a saturday afternoon.

 

I've not explained it well, but basically he's not as up his own arse as some ex-players that move into management.

 

Ripped the piss out of Mick Lowes too. They were on the balcony and he said it was a miracle the fat fuck hadn't brought it down.

[Happy Face 29]

He also said Owen, Martins and Viduka are pivotal to our survival as the most talented and experienced players at the club. Didn't go so far as to say all 3 would start when fit....but seemed to be leaning that way.

 

Also said 6 or 7 points won't be enough to survive. Definitely have to get 9. And that would still be the case whether or not we'd managed a draw at Spurs, so no-one's dwelling on that result. He wasn't that blasé about it, obviously disappointed, but looking forward rather than back.

[Park Life 71]

IMO tonight we will for the first time see whether the new management team are working stuff out.

[Christmas Tree 4821]

Martin Samuels latest verdict on Newcastle and Shearer

 

That Newcastle might finally take shape as the vision of one man gives the club more of a chance under Shearer than they have under anybody. Now fingers crossed that he knows what he is doing.

 

Having failed to make the instant impact hoped, with each match Shearer’s chances of leading a famous revival grow slimmer. Inspired by a home crowd and the urgency of their predicament, Newcastle should have beaten inconsistent Portsmouth on Monday night yet failed to score. The fat lady has not sung, but a principal bass from the English National Opera company has and even his rendition of Blaydon Races failed to raise spirits or performances on Tyneside.

 

Newcastle now go to Liverpool hoping for a random victory, while fearing that Sunderland could have the beating of an Everton side with one eye on the FA Cup final — particularly after Phil Jagielka’s unfortunate injury — and mindful that Hull City play Aston Villa, who have not won in 12 games since defeating Blackburn Rovers on February 7.

 

All at St James’ Park are pinning their hopes on the visit of Middlesbrough on May 11 but it could be too late. Shearer will fight to the last, as he must, and will dismiss all speculation about his future beyond the trip to Villa on the final day. It was widely believed that he would stay if he kept the club up, but it is equally imperative that he remains if the worst happens. It is a strangely contrary position: there is no evidence from his four games in charge that Shearer is the man for the job, and yet without him Newcastle are nothing.

 

The jury is out on Shearer, Newcastle supporters have seen more formations than the crowd at the Farnborough Air Show, but minus the spectacle. Michael Owen plays everywhere bar the opposition penalty area and the more strikers thrown into the action the less Newcastle look like scoring. The idea that Shearer had cleverly engineered a win-win situation by taking over the club at such a crucial stage of the season — a hero if he keeps them up, blameless if they go down — looks overly cynical.

 

Clearly, Shearer has a lot to lose if he fails to make any impression on Newcastle’s form. Already there has been criticism of his tactics and questions surround his ability to motivate a squad of players who do not share his love for the club. His new life contrasts sharply with the cosiness of the BBC sofa. It is not an easy ride. If Shearer takes Newcastle down, while he will not be loudly condemned his reputation will not be unscathed. He will be recalled as the false Messiah: the miracle worker who turned water into H2O.

 

In this aspect, Shearer has a duty to stay. Not to salvage his pride but because he has been allowed to drive so many changes at the club, from the coincidentally timed departure of Dennis Wise to the removal of senior coaching and medical staff. To then walk away after relegation and just two months in charge would equate to vandalism. True, Newcastle were already a failing club, but it was to be hoped that Shearer would introduce a tangible structure, something on which success could be built.

 

This is why if Shearer has to start from the Championship, perhaps it is for the best, long term. As dreaded as this fate may seem (‘in the Coca/Coca-Cola/ you will play Doncaster Rovers’, is the current favourite among Sunderland fans, sung to the tune of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, as brilliant as it is spiteful), it is perhaps a necessary price to remind those in charge what a dismal state Newcastle are in and why one man’s clear, unfettered plan is needed to revive them.

 

As hard-nosed as this may seem it would be a first mistake if that fresh start was to include caretaker manager Joe Kinnear, unless at Shearer’s request. It would not be fair to Kinnear, or the club, to go through the uncertainty and anguish of his heart illness again and the mooted offer of a permanent contract has to be discreetly withdrawn.

 

If Shearer has a berth for Kinnear on his staff then good, but it would be another recipe for disaster — and Newcastle must have enough for a book of them by now, with notes on accompanying wines and recommended stockists — if Kinnear were to be inserted into a new manager’s regime. When Shearer took over, he was utterly respectful of Kinnear’s brief service with the club, while tellingly admitting that he had not yet spoken to him or sought advice.

 

Shearer has his own backroom staff and is not in need of a specious director of football. He is the future of Newcastle in a way Kinnear can never be and, if that sounds brutal, then it is merely a reflection of Newcastle’s predicament. There is a way of treating Kinnear decently and with dignity that does not involve foisting him on a reluctant rookie as a misguided act of charity. That is the skilful path the club must negotiate.

 

The seriousness of Newcastle’s plight can hardly be overestimated. They do not have the same crippling debt as Leeds United, but they have a comparable gathering of expensive players, whose wages cannot be sustained beyond the Premier League. If relegated — and to a lesser extent even if not — it will be Shearer’s task to conduct a savage cull and produce a leaner, more manageable squad, built on players who can earn promotion from the Championship at the first attempt, and stay in the Premier League, before kicking on and upwards.

 

There has to be a five-year plan if Newcastle are to create a club of substance from the wreckage of this season. It has been claimed that Keegan, the former manager, had daft extravagant ideas about transfer targets that were in no way compatible with Ashley’s planned expenditure; certainly Ashley had an ill-conceived football executive structure built on cronyism that alienated the manager and precipitated this crisis.

 

What is required is a pragmatic middle ground. A realistic manager and an owner who has learned the hard way and allows him to do his job.

Newcastle would be the biggest club to fall out of the Premier League for football reasons (the relegation of Leeds was largely due to financial collapse), but the rot set in long ago.

 

The club stopped attracting the best players from a fertile locality — the better ones were going to Middlesbrough — because the academy system was poor and the team were increasingly stuffed with over-rated cast-offs and imports.

 

Newcastle aspired to be a big club and to play the transfer market, but their significance on Tyneside gave a false impression of their status in Europe and beyond. Newcastle could only buy the players the big four did not want and as they fell further behind they were outwitted by mediocre rivals, too.

Gradually, the pool of talent diminished until they were left with the current squad, a mismatched collection gathered through many regimes for many purposes. There are 40 players at Newcastle and one left back, who is now injured.

 

There are 11 strikers totalling 165 international appearances, yet Newcastle have won fewer games than any Premier League team this season.

They are the product of a decade spent without a coherent policy, without consistency of thought, without a clear way forward, without direction, without care. They need a man who can provide for them, a manager who is empowered and who will be unencumbered by the type of amateur advice and assistance that have dragged this club down for too long.

 

They need Shearer, even in the Championship, because without him the road may power straight through Doncaster on to places even Newcastle’s worst enemies could not imagine.

[Asprilla 96]

Martin Samuels latest verdict on Newcastle and Shearer

 

 

There has to be a five-year plan if Newcastle are to create a club of substance from the wreckage of this season. It has been claimed that Keegan, the former manager, had daft extravagant ideas about transfer targets that were in no way compatible with Ashley’s planned expenditure; certainly Ashley had an ill-conceived football executive structure built on cronyism that alienated the manager and precipitated this crisis.

 

To be fair, if we'd have got Modric and a couple of other decent players we wouldn't be having this conversation and Mikey baby would have a much more valuable asset on his hands. Who could possibly have seen this coming...?

[Park Life 71]

Martin Samuels latest verdict on Newcastle and Shearer

 

 

There has to be a five-year plan if Newcastle are to create a club of substance from the wreckage of this season. It has been claimed that Keegan, the former manager, had daft extravagant ideas about transfer targets that were in no way compatible with Ashley’s planned expenditure; certainly Ashley had an ill-conceived football executive structure built on cronyism that alienated the manager and precipitated this crisis.

 

To be fair, if we'd have got Modric and a couple of other decent players we wouldn't be having this conversation and Mikey baby would have a much more valuable asset on his hands. Who could possibly have seen this coming...?

 

Word.

[Tooj 17]

Martin Samuels latest verdict on Newcastle and Shearer

 

That Newcastle might finally take shape as the vision of one man gives the club more of a chance under Shearer than they have under anybody. Now fingers crossed that he knows what he is doing.

 

Having failed to make the instant impact hoped, with each match Shearer’s chances of leading a famous revival grow slimmer. Inspired by a home crowd and the urgency of their predicament, Newcastle should have beaten inconsistent Portsmouth on Monday night yet failed to score. The fat lady has not sung, but a principal bass from the English National Opera company has and even his rendition of Blaydon Races failed to raise spirits or performances on Tyneside.

 

Newcastle now go to Liverpool hoping for a random victory, while fearing that Sunderland could have the beating of an Everton side with one eye on the FA Cup final — particularly after Phil Jagielka’s unfortunate injury — and mindful that Hull City play Aston Villa, who have not won in 12 games since defeating Blackburn Rovers on February 7.

 

All at St James’ Park are pinning their hopes on the visit of Middlesbrough on May 11 but it could be too late. Shearer will fight to the last, as he must, and will dismiss all speculation about his future beyond the trip to Villa on the final day. It was widely believed that he would stay if he kept the club up, but it is equally imperative that he remains if the worst happens. It is a strangely contrary position: there is no evidence from his four games in charge that Shearer is the man for the job, and yet without him Newcastle are nothing.

 

The jury is out on Shearer, Newcastle supporters have seen more formations than the crowd at the Farnborough Air Show, but minus the spectacle. Michael Owen plays everywhere bar the opposition penalty area and the more strikers thrown into the action the less Newcastle look like scoring. The idea that Shearer had cleverly engineered a win-win situation by taking over the club at such a crucial stage of the season — a hero if he keeps them up, blameless if they go down — looks overly cynical.

 

Clearly, Shearer has a lot to lose if he fails to make any impression on Newcastle’s form. Already there has been criticism of his tactics and questions surround his ability to motivate a squad of players who do not share his love for the club. His new life contrasts sharply with the cosiness of the BBC sofa. It is not an easy ride. If Shearer takes Newcastle down, while he will not be loudly condemned his reputation will not be unscathed. He will be recalled as the false Messiah: the miracle worker who turned water into H2O.

 

In this aspect, Shearer has a duty to stay. Not to salvage his pride but because he has been allowed to drive so many changes at the club, from the coincidentally timed departure of Dennis Wise to the removal of senior coaching and medical staff. To then walk away after relegation and just two months in charge would equate to vandalism. True, Newcastle were already a failing club, but it was to be hoped that Shearer would introduce a tangible structure, something on which success could be built.

 

This is why if Shearer has to start from the Championship, perhaps it is for the best, long term. As dreaded as this fate may seem (‘in the Coca/Coca-Cola/ you will play Doncaster Rovers’, is the current favourite among Sunderland fans, sung to the tune of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, as brilliant as it is spiteful), it is perhaps a necessary price to remind those in charge what a dismal state Newcastle are in and why one man’s clear, unfettered plan is needed to revive them.

 

As hard-nosed as this may seem it would be a first mistake if that fresh start was to include caretaker manager Joe Kinnear, unless at Shearer’s request. It would not be fair to Kinnear, or the club, to go through the uncertainty and anguish of his heart illness again and the mooted offer of a permanent contract has to be discreetly withdrawn.

 

If Shearer has a berth for Kinnear on his staff then good, but it would be another recipe for disaster — and Newcastle must have enough for a book of them by now, with notes on accompanying wines and recommended stockists — if Kinnear were to be inserted into a new manager’s regime. When Shearer took over, he was utterly respectful of Kinnear’s brief service with the club, while tellingly admitting that he had not yet spoken to him or sought advice.

 

Shearer has his own backroom staff and is not in need of a specious director of football. He is the future of Newcastle in a way Kinnear can never be and, if that sounds brutal, then it is merely a reflection of Newcastle’s predicament. There is a way of treating Kinnear decently and with dignity that does not involve foisting him on a reluctant rookie as a misguided act of charity. That is the skilful path the club must negotiate.

 

The seriousness of Newcastle’s plight can hardly be overestimated. They do not have the same crippling debt as Leeds United, but they have a comparable gathering of expensive players, whose wages cannot be sustained beyond the Premier League. If relegated — and to a lesser extent even if not — it will be Shearer’s task to conduct a savage cull and produce a leaner, more manageable squad, built on players who can earn promotion from the Championship at the first attempt, and stay in the Premier League, before kicking on and upwards.

 

There has to be a five-year plan if Newcastle are to create a club of substance from the wreckage of this season. It has been claimed that Keegan, the former manager, had daft extravagant ideas about transfer targets that were in no way compatible with Ashley’s planned expenditure; certainly Ashley had an ill-conceived football executive structure built on cronyism that alienated the manager and precipitated this crisis.

 

What is required is a pragmatic middle ground. A realistic manager and an owner who has learned the hard way and allows him to do his job.

Newcastle would be the biggest club to fall out of the Premier League for football reasons (the relegation of Leeds was largely due to financial collapse), but the rot set in long ago.

 

The club stopped attracting the best players from a fertile locality — the better ones were going to Middlesbrough — because the academy system was poor and the team were increasingly stuffed with over-rated cast-offs and imports.

 

Newcastle aspired to be a big club and to play the transfer market, but their significance on Tyneside gave a false impression of their status in Europe and beyond. Newcastle could only buy the players the big four did not want and as they fell further behind they were outwitted by mediocre rivals, too.

Gradually, the pool of talent diminished until they were left with the current squad, a mismatched collection gathered through many regimes for many purposes. There are 40 players at Newcastle and one left back, who is now injured.

 

There are 11 strikers totalling 165 international appearances, yet Newcastle have won fewer games than any Premier League team this season.

They are the product of a decade spent without a coherent policy, without consistency of thought, without a clear way forward, without direction, without care. They need a man who can provide for them, a manager who is empowered and who will be unencumbered by the type of amateur advice and assistance that have dragged this club down for too long.

 

They need Shearer, even in the Championship, because without him the road may power straight through Doncaster on to places even Newcastle’s worst enemies could not imagine.

Damn!

[Guest alex]

Mind, I've seen it mentioned about the size of our squad before - i.e. 40 players but that includes the bairns. Our squad is actually pretty small (and with a lack of quality too) so the point about 40 players and 1 LB is a bit misleading (especially when Kadar has been counted as a player but not a LB).

[N17 0]

If United go down and Shearer leaves I think you should get Glenn Hoddle in as manager

[Tooj 17]

If United go down and Shearer leaves I think you should get Glenn Hoddle in as manager

I would have rather had him for the length of time that we had Kinnear. At least he tries to get his teams to play football.

[Fop 1]

Not sure about the decade bit either, we were doing "ok" () under Robson, just the ending and what happened after is the problem.

 

Even the very beginning of this season would anyone have said we were heading for relegation?

[Tom 14013]

fat pig.

[Christmas Tree 4821]

So, anyone seen anything yet that warrants a three year contract or is messiah syndrome going to kick in and we overlook everything else.

 

Im comparing between Shearer and a proven good manager btw, not Shearer v Kinnear.

 

Im a bit undecided. I like his honesty, his passion and the discipline (eating together parky) that he's brought in. But at the end of the day you need a lot more than that to be a good manager as many good players have proven over the years.

 

Anyone else swayed one way or the other yet and based on what.

[Jimbo 175]

He's not enthusing me at all, but you have to factor in to the equation the utter shite he has to work with.

[ewerk 31195]

Tbf he's new to the job, it will take him a while to find his feet. He'll make mistakes but the key thing is whether he learns from them, I don't think 8 games is going to be enough to decide either way.

[JawD 99]

Far far to early to judge I'd say. 8 games with the injuries and squad he has to work with plus the games he had and situation we are in?

[Asprilla 96]

Jesus no wonder we've got a "reputation"

 

 

If we stay up it will be because of Shearer, if we go down it will be because of what went before. Seriously, nobody is going to touch us with a bargepole and Shearer needs to be given some time. He has the potential to start something that nobody else can, simply because we've used up all our "Messiahs"!

 

 

By that I mean that there is nobody else with either the talent, or the clout to survive our situation at the moment. We need unity and patience and I can't see too many people other than Shearer who can do that.

[TicTacWoe 0]

Obviously way too early to tell, especially considering the abominable heap of crap he's inherited. If Shearer stays and we get relegated and then we struggle to make the playoffs next season, then I'd class him as a failure. Similarly, if he stays and we stay up and we have another season as bad as this one in the PL.

[Happy Face 29]

2 points from his first 5 games.

 

The same as Keegan last season.

[sniffer 0]

Shearer and Dowie can work as hard as they can but if the players can't be bothered then it's a waste of their time. These ae supposedly professional footballers but most of them look like they've never seen a ball before let alone know what to do with it.

[Snake 0]

Obviously way too early to tell, especially considering the abominable heap of crap he's inherited. If Shearer stays and we get relegated and then we struggle to make the playoffs next season, then I'd class him as a failure. Similarly, if he stays and we stay up and we have another season as bad as this one in the PL.

 

How he does will depend on how much money he gets to spend. Nothing a couple of 20m midfielders and a 25m forward couldn't fix

[Happy Face 29]

Obviously way too early to tell, especially considering the abominable heap of crap he's inherited. If Shearer stays and we get relegated and then we struggle to make the playoffs next season, then I'd class him as a failure. Similarly, if he stays and we stay up and we have another season as bad as this one in the PL.

 

How he does will depend on how much money he gets to spend. Nothing a couple of 20m midfielders and a 25m forward couldn't fix

 

He shouldn't get a penny to spend if we go down.

 

If we stop up though, aye, £60M should be enough to secure mid table.

[Norbert Colon 0]

I think Shearer will surround himself with enough good people to ensure success - whether he can get to the very top only time will tell-but he is not daft and i like what he has done so far-my only concern would be his motivational capabilities - but give the lad a chance.

 

If he doesn't stay though (of his own volition) and we are relegated Roberto Martinez for me - top class propect and likes football to be played properly