But these 10 years at Newcastle for all the frustrations such employment involves

But these 10 years at Newcastle, for all the frustrations such employment involves, have undoubtedly meant more to him. As Shearer explains: “It doesn’t matter that I didn’t win a trophy, because I did it my way and I lived the dream.”He says there will be no immediate transition to management. Who can blame him for delaying the change of life? At a time when Fulham’s Chris Coleman protests that the stresses of the job are affecting his health, why would a relatively wealthy man pitch himself straight into an abyss which is likely to yield as much jaundice as joy?Yet his remark that he wants a break for “a few years” is a curious one. He would know that even legendary England strikers have a “best before” date if they intend to enter management. And TV punditry is fine, but it can take the edge off any man’s ambition. There are too many other aspirational characters reaching the end of their playing careers to simply assume that the kind of position Shearer seeks will simply be in the offing when he feels the time is right. More likely, those “few years” will actually be a few months, by which time he will have completed his coaching badges, and the desire for a challenge will rise within him again.Something tells you that, despite his comments to the contrary, that opportunity could still arise and be accepted at Newcastle, the city of his birth.

It would provide a remarkable completion of a circle decorated with glorious personal achievement.. “Will you please hear it for the Premiership champions,” said the Highbury announcer at half-time. “Arsenal Ladies.” The presentation to the top team in women’s football was about as good as the afternoon got for the home fans, at least until Thierry Henry came off the bench and scored – as you knew he would. It was an equaliser Arsenal hardly merited on balance, and the failure to close the gap on Spurs in the race for fourth place virtually narrowed their aspirations of European football next season to one imperative, winning the Champions’ League. On the occasion of the final north London derby at Highbury, could this have been Henry’s last goal at Highbury as he ponders where his future lies? When Spurs capped an hour of domination with Robbie Keane’s goal it also sparked the dispute of the day – whether Tottenham should have voluntarily halted play rather than go on to put the ball past Jens Lehmann..

They thought it was Al over It is now. In his 18 years as a warhorse of a centre-forward, transplanted into the modern game from footballing days of yore, Alan Shearer has never shied away from a fight. As John Burridge recalled of the young Shearer’s formative days at Southampton: “When he was still in the youth team he used to train with the first team and he was so good I thought, ‘I’ll have this little git’ So I clattered him and he kept coming back for more It didn’t bother him. “I dived at his legs in training once and he hurdled over me I shouted at him, ‘Never jump over the keeper Go for the ball. Put your foot in.’ Well, I was playing for Falkirk four years later and Southampton came up for a friendly and Alan came in on goal at me He left me needing four stitches In the bar afterwards he said, ‘You told me to do it’ I just smiled and said, ‘Good lad’.”.