Hall expects Shearer stay

03 April 2009 09:17
Former Newcastle chairman Sir John Hall is confident Alan Shearer will lead the club to safety and hopes he will take the manager's job on a permanent basis. Shearer will take charge of Newcastle for the first time against Chelsea this weekend following his shock appointment earlier this week for the last eight games of the season. The Magpies are facing a real battle to avoid relegation with the club rooted in the bottom three two points adrift of safety, but Hall believes Shearer is the right man to rescue them from the drop. Shearer has refused to consider extending his stay as manager beyond the end of the campaign, but Hall, who signed Shearer for a then world record fee of £15million in 1996, feels the former Magpies skipper could be persuaded to remain in the job. "He will not be pushed into anything, he's so determined he will make his own mind up at the end of the day but it seems strange just coming in for eight games," Hall told Sky Sports News. "He can't lose, I suppose in a way, because they are in this difficult situation where they might go down. "If Alan keeps them up he is a winner, if they go down we can't blame him, nobody can blame him. "I am certain he will keep us up. He will motivate those players and we will be in the Premier League next season. "And hopefully he will reconsider his decision just to go for eight games and I have got a sneaking feeling that he wants to be back in the game. "Certainly everyone in Newcastle would welcome him as he is one of us - a Geordie, he's played for the Toon, he supports the Toon and he has got that feeling for the area and the region and for everyone here. "He will want to see Newcastle get some silverware on the shelves. "We have been bridesmaids for so many years it is time we were the bride. "The initial thing is he has got to keep us up and I am hopeful and pretty certain that he will do that."

Source: SKY_Sports