Is Alan Shearer Destroying his Match of the Day Credibility?

By: Daryl | May 5th, 2009

We’ve been told that the big Alan Shearer plan is to save Newcastle from relegation and then return to the comfort of the Match of the Day punditry sofa. Sounds good in theory.

But with just one goal and two points from his first five games in charge of the Toon, Shearer’s reputation is on the line. The BBC will take him back – he has a contract so they don’t have much choice – but if Shearer returns to MotD after losing a relegation battle (and losing it badly) then will we still be able to take him seriously as a pundit?

It’s fine for Gary Lineker to crack jokes and for Alan Hansen to sit there and criticize various teams’ defensive displays. We (sort of) trust them because they had exceptional playing careers and never failed in the managerial arena. Mark Lawrenson had brief spells in charge of Oxford and Peterbrough in the late eighties, but he never crashed and burned in the high profile way Big Al looks about to do.

If and when Shearer returns, can he really point out how bad a Premier League team’s defending is, when we all know his Newcastle team defended just as badly, if not worse? Similarly he can’t secondguess managers for not backing their goalscorers after he made Michael Owen sit out most of the game vs Liverpool on Sunday. And he can’t complain about players like Joey Barton either, as he seemed more than happy to give Barton a (fiftieth?) chance this weekend only for it to end in bad tackles and red cards.

The Anfield crowd were apparently singing “You should have stayed on the telly” to Shearer on Sunday. They were joking, but they were right.

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Pradajames

You cant seriously be laying the blame for NUFC's looming relegation on Shearer's shoulders? He's walked in to an almost impossible situation, one which the team certainly hasn't helped with their awful play. Its been a slippery slope towards relegation for the Magpies, but it isnt Shearer's fault.
Hilal

Yeah ITV are a joke as well. They all are. Commentary is supposed to give you am OBJECTIVE view of the game being played. Nothing could be further from the truth when listening to these guys. A very simple example; when Italian teams "park the bus" against the English, all the commentators rip into the Italian team. They are boring, negative, lack imagination, cannot handle the pace if English teams, etc, etc. However when an English team does it all of a sudden the same tactic is brave, organized, strong and resilient. Honestly it is ludicrous and it is a real surprise that so many ppl listen to them as if they are actually commentators. They are not, they are simply salesmen for the EPL and the media organisations that profit from the success of the EPL. I dont want a salesman, i want a commentator!
Rob

Hidal - You can add ITV to that too. I can't wait for the next time Andy Townsend says "I'll tell you what" before describing what I've just watched.
Hilal

lol....none of the pundits on the BBC or SKY are worth listening to. Very little that they say has any merit. They are paid enormous sums of money to shamelessly promote the corporate agendas of these media giants. SKY are the worst and some of the commenting and punditry is laughable at times. They constantly contradict themselves, make hypocritical statements and try to make assertions based on facts that are completely flawed.

Alan Shearer is the least of your worries.
Daryl

No, he's not. But mostly because he only ever states the really obvious, not because he says anything that's blatantly wrong.

So he was on shaky ground, but propped up by his then-golden reputation (and the idea that he might one day be a decent manager).
Rob

He's not a great pundit anyway is he?