ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: LOUISE TAYLORfinds the Newcastle manager in determined mood as he prepares for a game with huge ramifications
ONLY A game? Anyone attempting to persuade Alan Shearer that the importance of Newcastle United’s engagement at Aston Villa tomorrow has been exaggerated is guaranteed extremely short shrift. Asked yesterday whether, in a wider context, relegation or survival were not so significant, Shearer gave a rather forced smile.
“Only football matches? So the games at Villa, Hull, Sunderland and West Ham are only football matches, are they? Is that all? They’re pretty big, actually.”
Considering the potentially ruinous price of dropping into the Championship – not to mention the cost to his own pride and reputation – no one could accuse Newcastle’s manager of lacking perspective. All Shearer, who insists the Villa match is the “biggest” game of his life, cares about is where his side are when the music stops and two of Newcastle, Sunderland (who host Chelsea), Middlesbrough (at West Ham United), and Hull City (who face the champions, Manchester United), join West Bromwich Albion in the Championship.
Seven games – and one win – after being ordained as “the Messiah” sent to save Newcastle from falling into purgatory, the club’s former captain has 90 minutes left in which to pull off a dramatic rescue. While its success or failure remains unlikely to determine whether or not he continues as manager next season – something which will be finalised next week, when Shearer’s answer is expected to be in the affirmative – demotion would represent a crushing blow to a city whose self-esteem seems inextricably linked to the fortunes of its football club.
“We now have one last chance,” said Shearer, before emphasising that survival would mean more to him than captaining England and winning the Premier League with Blackburn in 1995. “Do I see it as the biggest 90 minutes of my career? Yes, absolutely. It’s bigger than any cup final, a hell of a lot bigger than a cup final. Strangely enough though, I’m looking forward to it.”
As a centre-forward, Shearer always relished the big occasion and now, when a man who was one of England’s most selfish strikers insists the futures of others matter far more than his own, he appears to really mean it. Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, has made it clear that relegation will entail job losses at St James’ Park. The manager feels responsible.
“The financial consequences are massive,” he said. “You’re talking about backroom staff who could lose their jobs, people like the tea ladies. We’re looking at that with the players and they’re aware of the implications.” Then there are the emotional ties. “Iain Dowie [his assistant] said to me, ‘Now I know why you turned Manchester United down in order to play here’. You all know what this football club is, what it means to the people here, what it means to me. That’s why I came back.”
Shearer’s inheritance was flawed, but, outwardly at least, he retains faith in his players to win at Villa while trusting results elsewhere. “I do believe I’ve got a bunch of players who’ll give me everything, who’ll be committed, who’ll be able to handle the situation,” he said. “It’s going to be pressurised. It will be a long hour and 50 minutes and there could be a late twist. But I believe we’ve got enough to get out of it. I really do.”
To paraphrase one of his former England team-mates, a Winston Churchill rather than an Iain Duncan Smith type of dressing room address seems called for. Shearer demurred. “I haven’t prepared my team-talk yet,” he said. “But, to be honest, I probably won’t say very much. We’re all aware of the stakes. I won’t have to motivate the players for this game.”
Shearer gave his first team a day off on Thursday and played golf with Dowie. “I got nine holes in and won for the first time in eight weeks,” he said. “I was talking tactics all the time and it put Iain off his swing.”
Speaking of game plans, Shearer’s refusal to admit that he wants to manage Newcastle in the long term smacks of playing a little hard to get. Perhaps, quite sensibly, he wants to extract as many assurances about budgets and strategy from Ashley as he can, while he remains in a position of relative strength.
There is, however, nothing remotely temporary-looking about the 38-year-old’s regime. In barely two months a man whose dedication is such that he jokes about becoming a stranger to his wife and three children – “Although I do think I should maybe start taking my son Will’s advice on team selection” – has overhauled the club’s medical and scouting departments and made key decisions on player contracts.
“I know I’ve done things which look long term,” he said. “Well, so they should be, because I’ve been employed by this club to do what’s best for it. I’ve made a few changes I felt were right.”
Asked whether he and Ashley were destined for a long-term relationship, Shearer – who will be without the injured Habib Beye tomorrow but trusts that Michael Owen and Jose Enrique will be fit to play – neatly body-swerved the question.
“Mike Ashley’s future is not important, my future is not important,” he said.
“What is important is Newcastle United. We have to save this club. Everything else can wait.”
GuardianService
