Why United should still be Keane on Shearer

Oct 4 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

ROY KEANE’S sorry situation at Ipswich is compelling evidence of one thing: fear can only get you so far.

That’s compelling, like a car crash.

But Keane’s latest calamity, contrary to what I read somewhere this week, is NOT proof that Alan Shearer and Newcastle United are better off without each other.

And certainly not proof that the most successful and single-minded players do not make for successful managers.

Neither is that fact that Ipswich is a job which once proved beyond one legendary Newcastle No 9 – Jackie Milburn – another hint that Shearer should resign as the Magpies’ manager-in-waiting.

The latter theory is seemingly gaining support as United blaze a trail in the Championship under Chris Hughton.

One win in eight games is a statistic to forever damn Shearer, or so some would have you believe.

Never mind that the eight games in question were against Premier League opposition amid a battle for survival fought by players left punch drunk by a season of self-inflicted blows.

Never mind that those players had won once in 10 games under Hughton before Shearer set foot back in St James’s Park.

Never mind, also, that Keane is to Shearer what oil is to water – and that oil is a dangerous thing at an incendiary football club.

No, the moral of Keane’s story is that intimidation is no permanent substitute for people skills.

Yes, Shearer himself has been a divisive character, but when he stands as a man apart, it is by design rather than an instinct which actually made him the life and soul of most of dressing rooms he was in.

Keane? A born loner.

Of course, that would be fine if he had other tools with which to carve a lasting managerial legacy.

But the evidence late on at Sunderland, and now at Ipswich, is that there isn’t really all that much lurking behind his thousand yard stare.

Like Clough and Ferguson, he has an unnerving presence. But the motivational skills, tactical acumen and emotional stamina which won his mentors the respect of several generations of players? All too obviously missing.

And fear is nothing without respect.

Even Bill Shankly, supposedly the game’s ultimate taskmaster and perhaps its greatest ever manager, had the human touch.

Shearer, though he kept it well hidden at times as a player, has it too.