Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL: Shearer knows his status alone won't rescue Newcastle
Alan Shearer gave the question no little thought. The silence opened up, intriguingly, although everybody in the room thought they knew the answer already. So was there any other club for which he would have taken this chance?
'Probably not,' Shearer replied, ever the diplomat, and then, as if re-assessing the strength of his answer and coming clean, 'no, not at this stage. No.'
Newcastle is the real Damned United and yet, for its favourite sons, it has the aura of paradise, of Elysium, the final resting place of gods and heroes. They are drawn to it, as if they belong there.
Riding to the rescue: fans throng to greet Shearer
When Shearer appeared stage left at St James' Park on Thursday it was as if he had been preparing for the entrance all his life. He walked tall, shoulders back, chest out, amused at the attention but not bemused by it.
He said he had not been plotting a rescue mission or waiting for the telephone to ring but, when it did, he slept on the offer for one night before agreeing to answer the call.
