Newcastle must have really rushed to announce Alan Shearer’s appointment before midnight last night, because otherwise everyone would have thought it was an April fool.
As it is the only fools are the Newcastle board and the Newcastle fans for thinking that a man with absolutely no managerial experience can pull them out of the mire.
This is a typical “heart over head” decision and it could, nay will, go tits up in the same way as Keegan’s recent return to the club. For anyone able to put head over heart for even a moment it’s obvious that the odds are stacked against Shearer succeeding.
You need experience outside the Premiership before you can succeed there
The only manager in the Premiership with no experience outside of it is Gareth Southgate, and look at where Middlesbrough are in the table.
Southgate’s clash with Shearer on May 9th could decide one, if not both, of their team’s fates.
Even then it’s still difficult
Paul Ince excelled himself as a player at a range of clubs and as a manager in the lower leagues.
He saved Macclesfield from relegation, won the Football League Trophy and promotion to League One with MK Dons, yet made a total fool of himself at Blackburn.
Roy Keane managed to win the Championship with Sunderland in his first season and guide them to 15th in the Premiership after that.
Things soon started to go wrong though and Keane quit with Sunderland 18th in the league after a 4-1 pasting by Bolton.
Strikers don’t make good managers
Most of the British managers who have pulled off the transition from the lower leagues to the Premiership were defenders or midfielders in their playing days.
Steve Bruce was a rock in the Manchester United defence for nearly ten years. He worked his way into Premiership management through promotion with Birmingham, but only after having managed in the lower leagues for around five years beforehand.
David Moyes played for a host of less glamorous clubs as a centre half before taking the reigns at Preston North End.
In four years there he gained promotion and transformed them into a solid Championship side. His hard work was rewarded with a contract at Everton and he has similarly overhauled them from regular relegation candidates to a top six side worthy of European competitions.
Gary Megson spent most of his playing career booting the crap out of strikers and failed as a manager before he succeeded. He eventually got some glory at West Brom, taking them from the brink of relegation to the third tier into the Premiership, bagging the 2002 Nationwide Division One Manager of the Year award and the title “Lord of the Manor of West Bromwich” in the process.
Meggo then boing boinged the Baggies down to the Championship and up to the Prem in successive seasons before getting the boot.
Only now after 12 years of management at all sorts of clubs has he figured out how to get a club to mid-table Premiership mediocrity.
Sam Allardyce is another centre half who carved his own route into the Premiership.
His work at Bolton was nothing short of outstanding, getting them to sixth place and UEFA Cup qualification in 2005.
He was unfairly overlooked for the England job after Sven’s departure in 2006 and given very little time at Newcastle, but his arrival at Blackburn has seen them find some semblance of form and pull out of the bottom three.
What about Zola?
Gianfranco is doing well at West Ham and yes, he was a striker, but unlike Shearer he had some experience as assistant coach of the Italian under-21 side before coming to the Premiership.
He was also a much more intelligent, unconventional striker than Shearer, playing a lot of his game outside the box. During his time at Chelsea in particular he exhibited a far more incisive knowledge of the mechanics of the game than Shearer ever did during his time at Newcastle.
So what will happen?
Unless precedent is tossed out the window Shearer may well get the opportunity to garner some experience in a lower league next season.