Will Ashley's biggest gamble yet pay off?
IT'S been labelled one of football's biggest gambles.
But the biggest gamble of all would have been not to do anything as Newcastle United continued to slip inexorably towards the unthinkable – relegation to the Championship.
Now, with Alan Shearer at the helm for the remaining eight games, Newcastle have a chance of staying up, and a fighting chance at that.
In recent weeks the odds on United dropping out of the Premier League had shortened considerably, and not without reason.
The bookies, as I know to my cost, rarely get it wrong, and Newcastle – with just six league wins to their name, and two of those coming against basement club West Bromwich Abion – looked doomed, having slipped into the bottom three before their defeat to Arsenal.
That's not a criticism of Chris Hughton – who has been doing a difficult job in near impossible circumstances as Joe Kinnear recovers from heart surgery – but a statement of fact.
Until recently, managing director Derek Llambias has been adamant he would not push the panic button and bring in an emergency boss, with another approach for Terry Venables – who was close to succeeding Kevin Keegan – having been dismissed out of hand.
However, Llambias and owner Mike Ashley, like United's fans, have become increasingly concerned at the club's plight.
And having come to the realisation that Kinnear will not be fit to retake charge any time soon, the pair have acted, with the international break, clearly, having come at the right time.
More than 17 years ago Keegan was tasked with keeping Newcastle in the old Second Division, but he had a couple more months to work with,.
And in any case, the stakes are so much higher now given the catastrophic financial implications of the drop from the cash-rich top flight.
Shearer, by contrast, has just a handful of games to work with, but it's not too late, and a win over Chelsea on Saturday would most likely put United's destiny back in their own hands.
It's been said that the club's record goalscorer could only damage his reputation on Tyneside by taking charge of the club he served as a player for more than a decade.
Shearer had that put to him by a journalist at a book launch a couple of years back, and his response – when he asked the questioner why him returning would tarnish his name – left everyone in no doubt he would one day take charge of his hometown team.
That day has now come, maybe sooner than anyone expected, and probably in far different circumstances than Shearer himself ever imagined.
Yet given what he achieved in black and white as a player, few will be writing off Newcastle just yet. The great escape is on.
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Weather for South Shields
Thursday 24 May 2012
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