“Is it a bird? Is it a plane?… no, it’s…”
Posted on October 7th, 2009 | 130 Comments |
Let’s make an assumption. Let’s assume that Barry Moat’s bid goes sailing through and, within minutes, we have the mighty Alan Shearer at the helm. How do the collective feel about that? Is he a white knight riding in to save us or an egomaniac sating his need for attention, and doing us more harm in the process? As Stardust (and David Frost on ‘Through the Keyhole’ ) would say….”Let’s look at the facts”.
His managerial record:
Played 8, Won 1, Drew 2, Lost 5.
….it’s not great, it’s not even mediocre. But, is he really to be judged on eight, end-of-season, scrambled bunfights with a dispirited squad, and a ton of behind-the-scenes pressure? Arsene Wenger said, at the time of Shearer’s appointment, that any manager coming in, with 8 games left, and expected to turn things around. Well that man wouldn’t be a manager, he’d be a magician. Al, to my knowledge, is no David Copperfield, he’s not even a Paul Daniels. He lacks vital experience. A tactical acumen hardened by season after season of bruising conflict. He doesn’t have it. He’d been widely seen as playing to the Geordies’, oft talked about, ‘Messiah Syndrome’. Stating our need for Gods, of varying statures, to appear every so often and fish us out of the clarts! He would, without doubt, focus media attention on us, at a time we are desperately trying to shuffle out of the ‘Red Top’ spotlight, and, in his insistence on listening to Iain Dowie, he’s made something of a rod for his own back. Dowie is a self-absorbed, loudmouthed know-it-all (with a spotty CV) who also happens to be a ‘Jonah’ for football clubs!! I could go on, but let’s say these are some of the objections to Big Al’s stewardship?
What then might the ‘Pros’ be to all of these ‘Cons’? Well, I know Worky (and others here) have an in-built repulsion to Sir John Hall’s media-fueled notion of a ‘Geordie Nation’; perhaps seeing it as the ultimate expression of mob rule. However, a mob is only a mob when it lacks leadership. When it has strong coherent leadership, what is it? An army, that’s what! A well-drilled, disciplined, powerful juggernaut capable of moving mountains, let alone winning football matches. A ‘Toon Army’ (if you will, or even if you won’t) could be a very strong, viable entity indeed: City/Fans/Club/Team enjoined in a circle of one. A broad ‘Church of Toon’ approach that unites differing views/opinions/Geordies and non-Geordies….with ‘the Club’ as it’s uniting principle. How long has it been since all our oars were in the water at once? How long have we drifted at the mercy of those who would steal from us, lie to us? How much is enough?
If we accept that we are fractured, that the club needs to be healed (from the inside out) then what better figure to affect that healing than Alan Shearer? Experience can be gained, tactics learned and infrastructures repaired. What is more elusive is that connection that managers have with their club. Ferguson at Man Utd and Wenger at Arsenal (recent criticism notwithstanding) both have that strong ‘us against the world’ ethic; as evidenced by Ferguson’s outrageous outburst at the weekend, to deflect the media from slaughtering his below-par team. We need someone with a love of this team, this city, at his very core. We’ve always performed better with someone like that at the helm. Shearer could heal the divisions, calm the troubled waters of ‘Mob vs Reason’, unite what is splintered. He has integrity, courage and honour. He has strength, he commands the respect of those around him, he’s an inspirational figure.
He wants to be a manager, how would it sit with us to watch him manage someone else, successfully? How much would that burn? To know he wanted us but we spurned him. Joe Kinnear was dismissive of our need for ‘messiahs’, his joke was tinged with the bitterness of a man who’s never been one. Joe had also been passed over in favour of Shearer. His assertion that, had he stayed we would not have been relegated, is the hollow rattle of a simpleton, impossible to prove, easy to state.
Football is as much about passion as it is about tactics, as much about endeavour as it is about skill, as much about heart as it is about head; if it were not then we’d all get rich predicting the pools every week. There are as many reasons to be anti-Shearer as there are to be pro; I expect there will be many differing opinions expressed here.
In an age of reason (rather than miracle) perhaps the head will rule the heart; but before the steely intellects have their way, let us consider this: if anyone stands any chance of reuniting this club, fashioning a team to be proud of and creating a dynasty to last more than one or two seasons, then surely it must be Shearer. The ‘Church of Toon’ awaits us and in it’s beneficent light we will stand refocused, renewed, reborn.
All together now…”Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s………SuperShearer!!”
Excelsior out!
NUFCBlog Author: Excelsior
Excelsior has written 6 articles on this blog.
Great article!
Better than the ‘war and peace’ sh1te that Stardust inflicts upon us.
Shearer, Shearer!