Le Tiss i agree I think bottled it a touch. Whilst its fair to question why Shearer didn't go to Man Utd (Where he was almost guaranteed trophies) its a touch different as we had finished second in the league (after blowing a large lead) and it wasn't a massive leap of faith to think he might have won things with us. I think most players in his position (their hometown club being second best team in the country at that time) would pick to go there rather than anywhere else. Compare that to when Scott Parker signed for us under Sounness stating he came to us from Chelsea because he "wanted to win trophies" which was just a plain stupid thing to say.
I think you have a point as at the time newcastle's stock was certainly as high as it had been for maybe 50 years but it didn't take much more than a glance at the history books to see where the chance of trophies was most likely. I think Shearer is a clever bloke and weighed up that he may have had 3 or 4 years at Utd whereas he could play for his home town club AND dictate the dressing room/management agenda as well, which he would never have been able to with Ferguson. Now don't get me wrong, Shearer was a top class footballer and could have walked into that Utd team but he just bottled that pressure imo and opted for the massive fish in the wee pond (sorry couldn't resist lol) and I wonder now with only 1 medal to his name of note, he regrets not having say 5 or 6 titles, FA Cups, League Cups, European cups as well as being just as wealthy, if not more? I know I would even if it were Sunderland.
True Cest, in hindsight he may well question his decision. I genuinely think at the time he made the decision a driving factor will have been valuing winning one trophy with his hometown club over a fwe trophies with anyone else - as he'd already won the league with an 'unfashionable' club he may have believed it was more than possible with Newcastle. That said he certainly knew how to throw his weight around, there's little doubt he had an influence over the departure of at least one manager and his shadow on the club when we slid down the league was massive. Even when we were midtable and he was in his 30's he was still linked with the top clubs in the league every year. Also (slightly linked) I think very few British players seriously consider going abroad for football and that's detrimental to the national teams, on that basis you could argue all the Brits 'bottle it' to an extent.
Never thought I'd see the day, but to defend Shearer (what the ****!) he wanted to go to United and Blackburn wouldn't sell to a 'Championship Rival', that ended well eh... He'd have ended up at the Toon, obviously, but maybe 3 or 4 trophy laden years later.
I think his shadow still haunts the club mate and it wont be long the way things are going until his chums on MotD are touting him for the managers job again and the fans will start to dream of another messiah moment (for what its worth I think he was a world class player but will be disastrous manager wherever he goes) and the circus will start all over again. That said, I have said this countless times that I don't think either of us will be in trouble in May.
Wasn't there an issue hanging over from how Ferguson handled Roy Keane and David May? (Keane all but signed for Blackburn and Fergy called him in the evening and assked him to break off his 'gentlemans agreement'; Whilst United apparently stung Blackburn in someway over the May transfer). Not sure if it was the deciding point but it certainly had bearing. There was alot of goodwill between Shearer and Blackburn, I think I'm right in saying that when he left he gave his signing on fee (a million or so) to Blackburns youth academy. Edit: Cest I agree, I don't think he's necessarily going to be a terrible manager but I've nothing to suggest he'd be good. I don't understand why people assume any correlation between how good you were as a player with how good you will be as a manager. I think he may go to Blackburn tbh, I think it would be a good move for him as a shot to nothing but as if he fails its easy to point to the set-up but they've got a decent team.
Good read once you get to the football part MM. Talking business not really my cup of tea. Worth searching out though, think it's on Amazon.
May have a deeks. Always intrigued by the background of people who make that much of a success of themselves mate, so I'll likely enjoy it.
They can't afford him. He wants 50-60k a week, which we are probably paying him, as he funds orphanages.
