Alan Shearer's 10-year association with Newcastle United as a player may have been an extremely happy one - but his return as a manager proved to be a disaster, with the Magpies relegated to the Championship on the final day of the 2008-09 season. Given eight games to save Newcastle from a perilous position, Shearer failed to win any of his first five matches - and in the last of those, Joey Barton was sent off for a terrible challenge during a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. Barton was suspended by the club "indefinitely" and fined heavily after reportedly brawling with Shearer in the changing room - allegedly the pair had to be pulled apart when the former Manchester City midfielder labelled his boss a "s*** manager with s*** tactics". Shearer had restored Barton to the Newcastle line-up for the first time in three months for the Liverpool match, and said afterward he had made a "mistake" in doing so and that the player's challenge on Alonso was a "coward's tackle". Despite the bust-up, it was Shearer who left following Newcastle's relegation and not Barton - who remained at the club until August 2011.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
