As someone who confessed to celebrating winning the Premier League by creosoting his garden fence, Alan Shearer is a man used to keeping his emotions in check. So the difficulty he faced in attempting to hold himself together when asked for his take on the omnishambles who are Newcastle United was perhaps one of the biggest indicators of the utter mess they find themselves in. Shearer has taken his hometown club down, and he sees all the hallmarks of a repeat.
“The whole club is a mess from top to bottom,” the 45-year-old, who was caretaker manager the last time Newcastle were relegated in 2009, said on Match of the Day. After an eighth league defeat in 11 games for Steve McClaren’s squad — it seems wrong to call them a team because they are anything but — it looks increasingly likely that they must emerge top of a three-club mini-league also comprising Sunderland and Norwich City to survive.
“He’s [McClaren] in massive trouble,” added Shearer, the former Newcastle forward and all-time Premier League record goalscorer. “He has to take his fair share of the blame but it’s a team that lacks character and one that lacks leaders.”
Given Newcastle’s well-documented propensity for shooting themselves in the foot, their fortunes were set to head rapidly south once it emerged that the players had issued a PR-driven vote of confidence in McClaren before Saturday’s defeat by Bournemouth, an astonishing move that more than one senior member of staff confessed had taken them totally by surprise. How much input the squad had in the release is debatable, perhaps very little given that they spent 90 minutes proving it was not worth the paper it was written on when being dismantled with some ease by Eddie Howe’s admirable side.
“We’ve seen statements from the chief executive, from the fitness coach and from the captain,” Shearer said. “And then we had the players backing the manager. Well, if that’s a performance to say, ‘We’re backing the manager’, then they really are in trouble.”
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Most of the squad declined to speak to the press in support of the under fire head coach afterwards, but Ayoze Pérez, who scored a late consolation goal, remained supportive, insisting collective blame had to be taken. “It is not about him, it is about everyone,” the Spaniard told NUFC TV. “He is still our manager, and we are with him.”
Sir John Hall, the former Newcastle United owner, was less supportive. “You need change,” he told the BBC. “Steve is not getting them to play and it’s probably time he goes. You’ve got to find someone to harness the team.”
David Moyes, out of work since being sacked by Real Sociedad in November, remains the favoured candidate among supporters to replace the incumbent, who has won seven of his 32 games in charge in the wake of being shown the door by Derby County in the summer.
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Surely that has led to self-doubt? “None whatsoever,” he insisted, a little too hastily to sound convincing, after leading the club to their poorest points return at this stage of a Premier League season, 24 from 28 games. Few give them hope of immediate addition to that paltry tally. Their next match is away to the leaders, Leicester City, who won 3-0 at St James’ Park in November, before they see out their fixtures this month by hosting Sunderland, who have beaten them in the past six meetings.
If, as Shearer suggested, the problems go from top to bottom, then would Newcastle be in this predicament, second bottom, regardless of who was manager? “I can’t say that,” McClaren said. “My message is that we have the players in that dressing room to win enough of our last ten games to get out of it.”
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Bournemouth took full advantage of Newcastle’s apathy to saunter to victory courtesy of late efforts from Josh King and Charlie Daniels after Steven Taylor’s first-half own goal started the rot. “These are historic moments for us,” reflected Howe, whose side are now 11 points clear of danger. He added: “These are great days for this club.” How Newcastle could do with a few of those now.