Alan Shearer surely needs no introduction. He's the Premier League's highest ever scorer with 260 goals, and holds that same record for his hometown club Newcastle United. He won a Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers and bludgeoned 30 goals in 63 England caps. It never really looked as though Shearer would move into the dugout after his retirement in 2006. Though he would often comment about his desire to be a manager one day, he made no moves to complete any of the required qualifications, and seemed happy enough to narrow his eyes and state the obvious on the Match Of The Day sofa. It was quite a shock, then, when he stepped into the breach to manage his beloved Newcastle United in April 2009. The club's permanent manager at the time was Joe Kinnear. He was recovering from heart surgery and had been temporarily replaced by the coach Chris Hughton. When he took over things were looking bleak for the club. They were in the bottom three with only eight games remaining. But if anyone could save them, Shearer could. Right? Wrong. The Geordie legend lost five and won only won is his eight games in charge, and relegation was confirmed on the final day of the season when a Damien Duff own goal condemned the club to defeat against Aston Villa. To make matters worse, local rivals Sunderland managed to stay up. Shearer was overlooked for the job on a permanent basis when Kinnear retired, and has not taken a management job since. It's hard to imagine clubs scrambling to offer him management jobs any time soon.
David is an office drone and freelance writer for WhatCulture and Moviepilot, among others. He's also foolishly writing a serialised novel on Jukepop and has his own irregularly updated website. He's available for freelance work. Reach out on Twitter to @davefox990
