Thu 23 Mar 06
No silverware for Shearer
The Geordies’ loss to Chelsea yesterday means Alan Shearer will almost certainly end his playing career in Newcastle without a trophy:
Dreams of Shearer ending his playing days with a Stanley Matthews-style happy ending proved unrealistic but Glenn Roeder’s team simply did not have the power to match Jose Mourinho’s double-chasers and they finished the game with 10 men after a harsh red card for Robbie Elliott in the last minute.John Terry scored the only goal in the fourth minute to book the Blues into the last four along with Liverpool, West Ham and either Charlton or Middlesbrough.
Shearer will retire at the end of the season, bringing the curtain down on 10 years as a Newcastle player. He will end it as the club’s all-time record goalscorer, after breaking Geordie legend Jackie Milburn’s long-standing record this season.
But he will not emulate Milburn’s achievement of bringing the FA Cup back to Tyneside. Shearer’s decade in black and white is destined to end in disappointment.
The only silverware he will have to show for one of the greatest careers in the modern era is a lone championship medal with Blackburn in 1995.
Everyone is talking about the manager situation at Newcastle, but I think we should be talking about the chairman situation. There is simply no excuse for a club of Newcastle’s size and prestige to finish in the bottom half of the table for two consecutive years, and a housecleaning at the top is long overdue.
Damian P.
“…a housecleaning at the top is long overdue.”
You’re right, of course, but Shepherd has declared his intention to remain with the club until such time as they actually win something. With the Shearer era fast approaching its climax and Owen sniffing around for alternate employment I fear you’re lumbered for some time yet, Mags…