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Alan Shearer should climb off sofa and show that he wants to manage


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Intersting one from the Times.... How Shearer percive in the Footballing world

 

Alan Shearer should climb off sofa and show that he wants to manageMatt Dickinson

 

If Alan Shearer was unusually impatient to have become a manager, he could have been one at 25. It is amazing to reflect that, in his desperation to keep his star striker, Jack Walker, the then-Blackburn Rovers owner, offered Shearer the opportunity to be player-manager at Ewood Park in the summer of 1996.

 

Remarkably, Shearer took the offer seriously enough to have phoned Kenny Dalglish to ask his advice. More extraordinary still, Dalglish told him to take the job. “There are not many players of your age,” Dalglish said, “who would get that kind of chance.” Indeed there aren’t, and for good reasons.

 

Managing a top-flight club is no job for a 25-year-old striker without a day’s experience, whatever his status. There is an argument to say that such a high-ranking role should not even be given to a 37-year-old who has never previously coached a team except to gain his badges.

 

As Fabio Capello said of the decision to make Gianluca Vialli manager of Chelsea, it was “like putting someone who has never driven behind the wheel of a Formula One car”. Even so, quite a few people seem to think that Shearer is equipped to manage England.

 

It is a campaign that has a fair degree of public support, but it fails to convince, however many references are made to Jürgen Klinsmann or Marco van Basten, two other great strikers who took over their national teams after minimal time at coaching’s coal face.

 

At least Van Basten had spent a year with the Ajax B team while, in Klinsmann’s case, the circumstances were unusual in that he did not have to worry about qualification for the 2006 World Cup. Shearer would be thrown straight into a hazardous campaign and it really would be a step into the unknown, with trips to Kazakhstan and Belarus. After the traumas of the past 18 months, the last thing that the FA needs is to be taking a gamble on England’s 2010 World Cup prospects with an unknown quantity.

 

Shearer may have the making of a decent England head coach, but not now, even if he would have the instant respect of the dressing-room. That is easily lost by a couple of defeats.

 

So if we are ruling out Shearer for England, what about Shearer for Newcastle United, where he is an idol, a legend, a god? Tyneside would hold street parties if he became manager, particularly if it was in place of Sam Allardyce, who is not exactly garnering popularity in the North East.

 

The assumption ever since Shearer left Blackburn for Newcastle is that it will happen one day and, while the former No 9 has been very careful not to fan the flames or to heap any pressure on Allardyce in his remarks on Match of the Day, the speculation will mount if results continue to be abject, as they may well do, with Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal in opposition over the next eight days.

 

The assumption that Shearer will take the job on one day comes hand in hand with an assumption that he will be good at it. But can we be certain? Perhaps all we know for sure is that there is something about Shearer, a seriousness of purpose, that would make you think twice about betting against him.

 

He can come over as dour but, at a Football Writers’ dinner a few years ago, he gave an acceptance speech that managed to be brilliantly funny and caustic at the same time. He has the aura of a leader although, as Dalglish could probably tell him, that does not last for ever in the dressing-room. Eventually kids come through who have little idea that you once rattled in goals for England.

 

Perhaps he will wait for Newcastle or England to come up, but there is a third way which, oddly, never seems to get discussed when it comes to Shearer.

 

It is starting at a lesser club the way that Arsène Wenger learned the ropes with the youth teams at RC Strasbourg, Sir Alex Ferguson with East Stirlingshire and Martin O’Neill with Grantham Town.

 

Or Marcello Lippi worked his way through the Italian divisions, Carlo Ancelotti started in Serie B with AC Reggiana and Frank Rijkaard was dismissed after taking Sparta Rotterdam out of the Dutch top division.

 

The problem is that Shearer does not need to drop down to Hartlepool United or even Derby County. His renown means that he will be able to wait on a top job. But at a time when the national game has never been so in need of determined, ambitious English managers, it leaves Shearer in danger of looking less serious about a long career in management than in a couple of jobs that he might be able to hand pick.

 

That would be a great shame because those who know Shearer believe he has a lot to offer. Like Martin Johnson in rugby, they think he should be doing more than sitting in a studio with a wire to his ear.

 

They think that he should be in the thick of it and, after 18 months on the pundits’ sofa and the golf course, it would be good news for the English game if he was finding his competitive impulses increasingly hard to resist.

 

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I'd still rather see him take a job in the lower leagues first just to see if he could cut it as a Manager it would be a shame to put him on that pedestal and watch him fall if it all goes wrong.

the needs and qualities of managing at the different levels are vastly different. the talents needed at the bottom of div 2 with no money are totally different to those needed in the prem with millions to spend.
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Does he really need this at the moment and if he fails it will be bad for us and him personaly ,imho he will not take it unless he is given a kings ransom to transform us .football has changed so much from keegans day and the pressure is so much higher with so much at stake and i guess that is one big reason not to take it .

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He couldn't possibly do any worse than BS is doing at the minute, and at least he will understand that to win a match you need to create opportunities ... If he had a defensive coach as his assistant then I reckon he would do ok

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I'd suggest that he needs to start elsewhere and see if he can make his mark. Time is on his side though, so he should be able to wait for the right opportunity. Taking the wrong job just because he's pressurised into it could damage his reputation.

thinking of rijkaard,guillit,van basten,beckenbaur,keegan,dalglish,hughes. is there many top players who have jumped in to the top flight or international and have failed ?

 

stuart pearce.....any others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have to read the threads Jonny you tart. ;)

 

You could form a pact with the other administrators, that by only they can moderate threads with Shearer and his management, there for you don't have to go anywhere near them you big flounce. ;)

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The article does raise the issue of whether a pedigree at club management level is necessary for the England job. They are very different roles, and over the years we've seen several managers who have been very successful at creating well run clubs (Revie, Robson, Taylor) flounder a bit when it comes to the national side. Keegan was the ultimate manager who really needed day to day involvement with players to have any impact.

 

My feeling is that the national team manager can't do much about fitness or skills. The chief demand is that he picks the best possible team and is able to mould them into a sensible unit from the tactical point of view, in a short space of time. It needs a good thinker about the game, rather than someone who works by trial and error. He also has to be able to motivate players in a short space of time, because he can't develop relationships with them like a club manager.

 

Shearer's comments are usually very perceptive. He's got the brains. I'd worry that he's too much of a conservative though - I'd prefer a foreign manager with some new ideas.

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For me club management is all about getting the best people to get short term impacts - players only being in squads for a week at a time etc.

 

It also involves great preparation in terms of locations for hotels/training camps friendlies etc.

 

In other owrds you don't have to be a great coach to be a good international manager, someone like Clive Woodward could manage England well with the right people around him. Its also probably why the likes of Klinsman, Hughes, Billic can have an International role as their first job and do it well.

 

The smart managers then take stock of the training methods and learn man management skills in the international arena and transfer them to club management.

 

As for Shearer, I want him here, don't care about lack of experience as I reckon he would be sensible enough to get people in to cover his weaknesses. And he would be backed by owner and fans. No need to go to a lower league club, the skills needed are completely different

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    His personality alone will be better than Big Sam but if you ask me if he is my first choice for our team my answer will be NO. But from British manager he is the best option for us out there he will galvanize everything. With his close relationship I wouldn't rule out Kenny Dalglish as DOF if he comes as manger. Over all though if we part company with Big Sam we should go for a top CL winning manager. I always belive Hiddink would be a good manager for us his side plays attractive football and he doesn't require lots opf money to build good teams.

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How do they automatically assume Geordies will be havin' street parties if he took over the Toon?

 

I don't know anyone, or have spoken to anyone even on this board, who wants Shearer as our manager. Fuckin' pathetic.

 

I'd have a street party tbh.

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I wouldnt like to see him start off any lower than a club in the Championship which has a large following (That could be us soon :idiot2:). I know Ince has done well but I feel the problems presented by most lower league club does not bare a resemblance to the problems presented to top flight management now. He needs to learn to deal in the international transfer market,dealing with player who are good money, deal with agents who look after players making good coin, deal with a youth team the functions in the world of Academy status & all the shite it brings & the expectation of being in charge of a well supported club,

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How do they automatically assume Geordies will be havin' street parties if he took over the Toon?

 

I don't know anyone, or have spoken to anyone even on this board, who wants Shearer as our manager. Fuckin' pathetic.

 

I'd have a street party tbh.

me too, already got council permission to block the street off
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