in today's papers? In Barbados with Rob Lee and their respective families. Didn't Alan claim in the last programme of the season that he wouldn't be going on holiday and that he'd just be at Chester-le-Street and the gym getting fit? In any event, I'm sure the Barbados Advertiser has pics of him and Rob at the local working men's club, meeting the bairns and raising money for the local bairns' teams.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Answers

AGITATED PROSTATE.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Working mens club in Barbados? you're joking?? I'll have to take my club cards next time so I can get a couple of games of Dominoes in....

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Those two are so clicky it's dangerous!

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Yep, Gav, I'm joking...I was referring to another thread about how he appears to be a shoe-in for the next managers job despite showing no appetite for anything other than a suntan in his free time.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

apparently bloody Bobby Robson is on holiday at the moment, just who the hell do they think they are, they should be working the whole time, not just lazing around on the beach, I'd be much happier if Shearer was still in the England squad and was playing 12 months a year rather than trying to recuperate from injury, bloke's just an idiot

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

I bet he hasn't even taken his Rothman's Football Yearbook with him the useless bugger!

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

They all work on the premise that we don't need to know, it's of no importance that we should know, it's none of our bliddy business anyway, and there's absolutely no way we'll ever find out, so none of this should come as any surprise.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

next thing you know, some unlucky season ticket holder will actually get to sleep with the players wives!!!

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

MacBeth - what I was referring to was the fact that we'll get how he didn't get a holiday because he was training to get back to fitness shoved down our throat in most of his programme notes next season. He started on this at the end of last season drawing a miserable picture of him, Rob Lee and Kieron Dyer in full time training all summer.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

PS. I mean, it's the two-facedness of it I'm moaning about.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Oh, and he has also more or less dismissed the idea of doing his coaching badges. But because he is Alan Shearer, we seem to be gaily accepting that he doesn't have to.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

But Dougal, he doesn't have to. He doesn't need another job after he quits. Full stop. I bet Cuddly Aaron Hughes (CAH) isn't as arrogant as that ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

i don't care what he does, as long as he doesn't harm kids

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Screach - he doesn't have to doi anything but he has stated that he wants to go into management and the general opinion being that he will be our next manager. Personally, I'd be happiest if he did stick to Sky punditry and never went near management but every sign is that he is in line for management at NUFC despite being the worst equipped of any of our senior players. What's Aaron got to do with it? As far as I'm aware he has no management ambitions and his post-retirement plan is to live with wife and any bairns "somewhere on the beautiful coast of Northumberland" fishing and playing his guitar.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

LOL, Swift. He was playing with his own girls and Rob Lee's son in the pictures so you can rest assured that he is good with bairns.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

PS. Screach...although as it happens CAH wouldn't be as arrogant as that :))

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

With you there doogs, Shearer as manager could be tricky...but, lets go with the current trend and put people in key positions without having proved themselves capable.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

As well as being the "worst equiped" of our senior players he is also the youngest, Barton 32, Speed 31, Lee 45, Shearer 30. If he does happen to be taking a summer holiday then good for him. If he is limping around Barbados at the rate he limped around after the Villa game then the kids will be running rings around him.

I have this deep suspicion that if he went on some sort of coaching course there would be some point on it where someone would suggest he kicked a ball. If he could barely move three weeks ago it probably isn't a good idea to let him be a martyr on a training course, he's got a whole bloody season to do that in.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

"All aboard, all aboard - get your tickets for the Shearer bashing bandwagon".

It's absolutely bloody amazing, the guy goes away on a family summer holiday with his best friend and his family, and he gets massacred - just read again the malicious cr@p on this thread and feel ashamed of yourselves.

Exactly what has Alan Shearer done to deserve this constant sniping and character assasination?

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

dunno, he hasn't managed us to the Premiership title yet

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Howway Clarky, we've got nowt better to do.

I'm really looking forward to the first posting slagging off one of our regular contributors. Now that really would be interesting.

In fact, I'll start the ball rolling.

I was drinking in a makem pub at the weekend, what do you make of that ? :-))

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

I'm sure you were simply spreading the good word PB! ;-{)

He hasn't had the opportunity as yet Macbeth, although I can see the perverse logic in criticising in anticipation - just in case!
I suspect he will get the chance. However, when he does they better kit him out in a suit of armour, in particular to protect his back when he has to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune".

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

at the current rate of progress I reckon he'll be the manager who can proudly say he cut the ribbon on the new youth academy

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

With Rob Lee in his bath chair looking after his zimmer .

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Clarky - please don't accuse me of being malicious or of jumping on the Shearer bandwagon. I don't accuse you of being a sad old sentimentalist about him, do I? I've never knowingly been malicious in my life and I've never been sheeplike in my opinions or followed bandwagons. I am just tired of reading sob stories about Shearer having no holiday this year etc when he is having a very decent one and I can't express my disgust that the club is going to make a manager of someone who hasn't got the energy or discipline to do the donkey work that leads to management while everyone seems to laugh their socks off at the idea of Barton, who has been coaching for years and works hard enough to do his badges, being our next manager.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Dougal, I'll willingly ignore your ageist comment, and accept simply being called a 'sad sentimentalist' for defending a guy who simply does not deserve the carping, undeserved, and ill-informed criticism he gets on here.

For people to whinge on about someone taking a holiday with his wife and kids is pathetic beyond belief, and a sad testimony to those who criticise his every action, and even projected future actions.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

PS. Clarky, any criticism in advance is not criticism of Shearer, it's of the lack of judgement in selecting for management, particularly of a club like Newcastle, of someone who is unproven. I just can't understand the club fotand the logic. If he was coach for a few years, that would be a different matter and I would applaud the club for thinking ahead , but it appears that he will walk straight into the hotseat which is patently absurd. The thing is, I don't think it would be good for Shearer either - we're much less agreeable about our managers than we are our N0.9s.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

With all due respect to everyone on this thread. What does it matter when Shearer takes a holiday? What the f£££ do we know about Shearer's credentials as a manager/coach and who are we to judge?

I don't recall Keegan having all the badges but he did a decent job. Barton may have all the badges in the world but if he doesn't know how to implement them they're a waste of time!

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Clarky, you're the very last person I want to argue with, but please try to understand what I am actually saying - I don't care if he holidays on Mars, but I have read literally hundreds of articles in which he has said that he will be in rainy old England all summer blah blah. Furthermore, I am not criticising him for his probable role as manager, I'm criticising the fact that we as a club are considering him as manager. As a matter of personal opinion, I think he does lack some of the characteristics that tend to be displayed by good managers. That is purely personal opinion. I'm sorry you think that is pathetic - I don't agree with many of your opinions on the board so that makes us equal, eh? By the way, "old" was actually a term of endearment! The same way I call my nephew a stinky old thing. There's patently nothing sentimental about defending someone - you will note my vocal defences of Warren Barton. I DO think that there is some sentimentality in selecting Shearer for our next manager, though. I am actually a Big Al fan as you should recall but three things have got on my nerves recently - the whingeing he did about having to train during

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Clarky, you're the very last person I want to argue with, but please try to understand what I am actually saying - I don't care if he holidays on Mars, but I have read literally hundreds of articles in which he has said that he will be in rainy old England all summer blah blah. Furthermore, I am not criticising him for his probable role as manager, I'm criticising the fact that we as a club are considering him as manager. As a matter of personal opinion, I think he does lack some of the characteristics that tend to be displayed by good managers. That is purely personal opinion. I'm sorry you think that is pathetic - I don't agree with many of your opinions on the board so that makes us equal, eh? By the way, "old" was actually a term of endearment! The same way I call my nephew a stinky old thing. There's patently nothing sentimental about defending someone - you will note my vocal defences of Warren Barton. I DO think that there is some sentimentality in selecting Shearer for our next manager, though. I am actually a Big Al fan as a player as you should recall.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Debuilder - it's about having the discipline and desire to get whatever qualifications you need to do a job. I mean, I think I'd make a decent GP, but I haven't got any medical qualifications so I don't expect people to say, well she has a great law degree and loads of A Levels so we'll just let her start on Monday. You are right, both Barton and Shearer are unproven and we know nothing about how good they'll be as managers. However, we can look at George Burley and make a fairly good evaluation. Do you see the difference?

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

We could present countless examples to argue a case but at the end of the day you need one thing above anything - LUCK.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

OK dougal - let's call a truce, but first let me make a couple of final points:

* while most of the players will be getting 8-10 weeks holiday this summer, AS, KD and possibly RL will almost certainly only get a nominal period in which to take a break away with their family and friends, due to their rehabilitation needs. We really shouldn't begrudge them that.
* the projected appointment of AS as Manager, if true, should not be held against him personally - irrespective of how we view that decision by Club management. For all the reasons we've discussed ad nauseum, he could be a huge success, an embarrassing failure, or something in between. However, the Directors of NUFC are exclusively responsible for making that decision, under advisement from Bobby Robson - NOT Alan Shearer - and they should stand or fall by the success or otherwise of their decision.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

OK, Clarky. I agree that the board should stand or fall by any decision they make vis a vis Shearer or anyone else. Regarding holidays, this is slightly off the point, but it is a bit worrying that some of our key players will be coming back from internationals this weekend and will only be getting about a month's holiday, too. I know it's good experience etc to play against Nedved, Figo, Owen et al but it would be just our bleeding luck that they'd get injured. PS. There are very few people's opinions I value and respect more than yours so I hope we are friends.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Of course we are - you know I'm just a prickly old sod!

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

At the risk of being told to butt out and mind my own business, could it not be that the Shearer whingeing about being stuck in rainy owld Blighty could just be journalistic decoration ?

Like a lot of the incoming/outgoing player speculation - anything to sell copy.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001