Pissed around last season? Some fantastic re-writing of history there. The manager at the time had a heart attack if you remember & hughton was put in temporary charge & tbh he was absolutely fucking shit and so they brought Shearer in.
If anything Ashley's been far nicer to him than he should have been by giving him another chance this year.
How is it re-writing history? The man was brought in to give Keegan a hand originally, wasn't he? The three or four times he was caretaker manager, the way he had to put up with Kinnear, the way he was demoted and undermined as Shearer and Dowie came in, despite him being told he was in charge for the season (and DO NOT say "well he was crap therefore Shearer was appointed", because Kinnear was just as bad and he got two contract extensions during his stay) and also the whole sale saga this summer where he didn't know if he was coming or going, along with the complete lack of transfer activity.... that just about signals "pissed around" to me.