Toon ain’t big enough for Shearer AND Keegan

Jan 27 2008 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

ALAN SHEARER has avoided getting caught in what my late Great Uncle Arthur might have called a cleft stick.

I say “might have” because Arthur had a cleft palate, and (corrective surgery in the 70s not being what it is today) I could barely understand a word he said.

Anyway, back to Big Al – and his dodging of even bigger dilemma.

It would seem Shearer is still undecided whether to join the court of King Kev.

But he is not about to take up an offer of a position at HRH’s right hand.

And I’ll lay my cards out on my new breakfasting kitchen table (Habitat, horrifically expensive, her fault) right now and say Shearer is right to stay on the Match of the Day sofa rather than cozy up too close to Keegan.

Why? Because while they ARE a big club (witness yet another week of southern sniping for proof as much), I reckon the Toon ain’t big enough for the both of them.

At least, not for both of them to be together as partners in the dug-out.

And I have a feeling both men reckon so too.

Of course, it’s as inevitable as the prospect of a Keegan/Shearer partnership being mooted that neither of them was quick to rule it out.

Even if they did not share too much genuine affection for the club to dismiss such talk lightly, both are too savvy to say anything which might undermine their greatest and mutual strength: iconic status on Tyneside.

But was either man really ready to risk that status by teaming up with the other as a double act in which they would have stood to fall as one?

Indeed, was there anything other than history and Geordie sentiment to truly draw them that closely together?

Reading things carefully – admittedly, between the lines at times – over the last week, I’m not so sure.

Neither man ever did much more than dance politely around the issue.

But I can’t be alone in thinking it curious that Keegan made public his suspicion that his failure to attend Shearer’s testimonial has driven a wedge between them.

And, before you ask, that information was not coaxed from KK’s lips, but volunteered.

I’ve often wondered whether Keegan’s departure from Newcastle – six months after he sold Shearer a move to St James’s on the premise that he would build a trophy-winning team around him – sits easily between them.

And while that is just speculation, what were we to make of the honest opinion of Rob Lee, the duo’s closest mutual acquaintance, on the prospect of a Big Al/Special K combo being a dream ticket?

“I don’t think so . . . Kevin’s a strong personality, Alan’s a strong personality, and I think they might have a few little clashes.”

For Shearer’s part, there was never any way he was going to queer his future pitch (for who can foresee him not taking charge of Newcastle some day?) by sounding dismissive of returning in some capacity now.

But his talk of managing elsewhere first was also interestingly timed.

And so we come to the potential cleft stick.

If Shearer was to take a top job at another club, the antipathy – or outright hostility – he provokes beyond Tyneside would leave him short on rope and, very possibly, on to a loser.

A return to Newcastle as Keegan’s second in command would have given him second fiddle – something he never played as a player.

Something even some who know him find it difficult to see him doing at all.

Either way, Shearer stood to be tainted by failure. The halo might have slipped.

Far better then to link up with Keegan only occasionally between stints on that sofa, where only his punditry skills are open to criticism, and wait for the inevitable.

The inevitable being his succession to the Geordie throne whenever – and however – King Kev vacates it.