Shearer jokes he’s ‘still waiting’ on Ashley call after sending managerial plan

Alan Shearer failed to receive a response from Mike Ashley after he detailed his plan to get Newcastle back in the Premier League after their 2009 relegation.

The Toon hero took over for the final eight games of the 2008/09 campaign following the spells of Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear and Chris Hughton – but they failed to avoid the drop.

Shearer oversaw one win and two draws from those fixtures, but went to the owner with a plan for immediate promotion which was eventually sealed by Hughton.

During his interview to celebrate the 70th birthday of Keegan with the Athletic, the former England striker has joked that he is still waiting on a call from Ashley.

Shearer wrote: “As it turned out, the season Kevin left, I ended up as Newcastle’s fourth manager in seven months, following him, Joe Kinnear and Chris Hughton.

“I loved those eight short games in charge, even though I was unable to steer the club away from relegation.

“That summer, having presented my plans to secure promotion at the first time of asking, I waited for Mike Ashley to call me back. I’m still waiting.”

Keegan, who stepped away from the dugout following his second spell at St James' Park, also spoke about Shearer’s spell as boss. And insisted that nothing could have saved the club.

He said: “Nothing could have saved Newcastle because a badly run club is a badly run club and you can work as hard as you can on the football field but if everything else is not right then it filters through.

“When you took it, I just thought, ‘Well go on then! It’s a hell of a task’. But at least you didn’t have to worry about signing players because the window had gone.

“You had to work with what you had. And what you had wasn’t quite good enough.

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    • “Who knows what would have happened if you’d have kept them up.

    “It’s like you saying to me, ‘how do you feel about losing the league’, and maybe it’s the same as you going down. Could you have done something different? Should we have gone more defensive?

    “Should we have attacked more? There’s no point looking back. You give it your best shot and sometimes even your best shot is not good enough.”

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