In the past Shearer has managed to resist the pull to move to Newcastle, and I was always one of those fans that didn’t want him to come back. I was worried that the status that he had worked so hard to get for himself (that of a hero amongst the geordie faithful) would be forgotten if he came back to manage us and it didn’t work. But now I think the timing is right. Lets look at what’s changed.

Well for a start we’re looking at the very real possibility that we’ll get relegated. And this will probably still happen. Do I want it to? Absolutely not. But I still think it will. Even with Wor Al’s influence on the team I think we’re already past the point of no return. But I still think it’s a good move. If we go down then at least he tried, and the fans can’t exactly blame him for the relegation. But if we stay up, Shearer will be hailed as an even bigger hero around St. James’ Park, and his place in history will be even more secure than it is at the moment.

For today at least, it feels good to be a Newcastle fan again. All the recent results seem like they don’t matter quite as much today as we’ve got back our second Messiah, and we know he’ll try. He’ll inspire the team, he will not suffer fools, and he’ll demand that every player gives the same amount of passion and commitment that he always did whenever he pulled on the number 9 that is now synonymous with his name. Lets face it, Shearer is the number 9 that Newcastle fans talk about.

Of course if it is actually an April fool then I’m looking very silly right now…

It was a good evening to be an England fan. From David James in goal, through to Rooney up front, everyone made a contribution (although admittedly one of James’ contributions was to body check a Croatian player outside the box – he was lucky not to get booked for that). The undoubted star of the show though was Theo Walcott. His first senior goal for England started the journey to victory, and were followed by his second and third in the second half which put the result beyond doubt. By the time Walcott’s second goal was making the net ripple, Croatia were down to 10 men after what can only be described as an assault by Kovac on Joe Cole. The Croatian jumped and led with a vicious elbow which left a wound of around 5 inches on the head of Cole. Kovac took an early bath for that challenge.

And to be honest it was a night of poor challenges, niggles and some outstanding play-acting from the Croatians. If they’d spent more time trying to play and less time rolling round like a Serbian sniper had shot them they may have been less humiliated on the pitch. They might also still have the unbeaten home record that they had 24 hours ago. For a team that has not lost any home competitive match in their history, it was a tame performance to try and preserve that record last night.

So with a good 4-1 behind us yesterday, and a 2-0 win on Saturday England are sitting pretty at the top of their qualifying group. The smiles are back on the faces of the England players and fans. There is a general feel good attitude again. Now all we need to do is keep the momentum going in the next game against Belarus by putting in the kind of performance that saw us coast past Slaven Bilic’s team last night…

For me I can’t believe that the Premier League thought that this would be accepted by the fans. The people, who week-in, week-out, travel the miles and hand over their hard-earned cash to watch their teams. And this is how the league wants to repay them? By making them watch their team on the TV playing however many thousands of miles away. Ridiculous.

What then makes it worse is that the plan also states that this game will be part of the league, and will therefore have league points attached to it. To keep the league “competitive” though, the ties will be drawn at random. Well I say at random. The “big 4″ will be seeded so that they don’t meet each other! So how is that fair? And if losing one of these games by 4 goals (for example) is enough to reduce a clubs goal difference sufficiently to be relegated I can’t see their fans being appreciative of the extra game and associated income.

In an unusual show of sense, even Sepp Blatter has come out and condemned the plans. Will miracles never cease? Some countries have come out in support of the idea, but of those that have, they have pretty much universally said that this would only be if they could have a game involving one of the big 4. Somehow I can’t see many countries bidding for the rights to Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough myself…

Keegan originally left the club 11 years ago after taking Newcastle United from the 2nd division, to the brink of winning the premiership in just 5 short years. Since then, everyone who has tried to manage the club (even the great Robson) have lived in Keegan’s shadow. The majority of the photographs on the wall in the more private areas of the ground are from the Keegan era (the likes of Tino Asprilla scoring his amazing hat-trick against Barcelona, the signing of Shearer, Albert lobbing Schmeichel in the infamous “Howay 5-0″ match to name a few), and this shows when the halcyon days of the club were.

But now the “Geordie Messiah” has returned, and what a difference he has already made. His first game in charge is on Saturday against Bolton, but the Keegan effect was already in full show last night. For a team that lost 6-0 last weekend, and who had been playing some absolutely dire football over recent weeks, the change was incredible. As was the attitude of the fans. People who had been previously decrying the style of football that they were paying to see, and who weren’t happy with the management team, have now been dancing in the streets. If the BBC are to be believed, 20,000 tickets were sold in the 3 hours before the game last night after the announcement that Keegan had returned. Take this with a pinch of salt however as the crowd was just over 34,000 and not the 53,000 that the BBC claim. Also, we can score. Now fair enough we were playing Stoke, but look at the way we struggled to get a draw at the Britannia stadium 10 days before and compare that with the performance last night. Stunning.

So where does this leave us? Well with a feeling of warmth at the moment. For days I’ve been saying (to anyone who will listen in the banana patch in which I work), that there were only 2 men who could pull off the job. One was Shearer, the other Keegan. Most of the time this was met with chuckles and responses of “yeah, right”. But laugh no more (especially those of you rounf the banana patch who are Stoke fans!) as Keegan knows what the fans want. Now, it’s time to deliver…

Every England fan has an opinion on Mclaren, and not many that I’ve spoken to are in support of him. Like Sven before him, his lack of tactical awareness staggers me. Take last Friday for example. What exactly could we gain from that match? Some will argue that it helped to bring the team together and get them playing as a team. What was the point in the game though? Admittedly, with hindsight, playing the game was the wrong decision. But it was said beforehand that the choice by Mclaren to play the starting 11 who will start on Wednesday against Croatia was foolish at best. And so it proved to be.

As a Newcastle fan it frustrates me that, once again, Michael Owen has gotten injured serving his country. The fact that I am one of the fans who help pay his wages, makes it even more frustrating that I’ve seen him play more in an England shirt since he signed for us than in a Newcastle shirt! Mclaren now talks about how he has a striker problem as though this is some kind of dilemma he’s been given by someone else. You picked the team Steve, you live with the consequences of it. After all, that’s what you get paid a ridiculous amount of money to do!

Those of you that know me, and that have discussed football with me since Mclaren’s appointment to the England job, will have heard me say this before. I still can’t believe that, when the powers-that-be at the FA sat down when Sven left and looked at the market, that they really thought the best person to take on the role of England Manager was a man who had just steered his Premiership club to 14th in the league. Certainly a managerial force to be reckoned with, obviously. More I fear that the FA bowed down to the pressure from the media, who seemed intent on England being managed by an English manager. “Look at other countries” they cried. And they will again. Sure Alex Mcleish has done a fantastic job with the Scottish team this time. As a Scot himself I’m sure it made the achievement even sweeter (apparently not qualifying for the tournament is not a failure in Scotland – nothing like setting high standards for yourself!). That’s all well and good when you have such great managers of your nationality. And England does have. Just not Mclaren.

I hate to admit this, but I feel in the sense of full disclosure that I have to. Part of me really didn’t care what the result was on Saturday. Sure if Russia lost then that’s good as it gives us another bite of the cherry (one that we shouldn’t have needed I hasten to add). If Russia had won and we hadn’t qualified then there’s always that part of me that thinks “Great, that’s the end of Mclaren then”, and I really think that is what the England team needs. We need to get back to the days of the Venables-style football. Remember Euro ‘96? How many of you thought we’d go all the way, and I mean really thought (and felt) that we would? I know I did. I remember the stunned silence at the end of that penalty shoot-out like it was yesterday. And it hurt. Now? Who truly expects us to go on and win next summer?

For me Mclaren has to go. He’s tactically inept, doesn’t seem to know which players to play in his “best” system, or which system to play to make up his “best” team. Who should replace him? There are a few names that spring to mind, but none of the English names are available at the moment. So we’re left looking overseas, although that isn’t a problem for me. As long as the team play well I don’t care where the manager comes from. If England qualify on Wednesday night the media will think Mclaren is great again, fickle beast that they are. But surely qualification should be the minimum that English football expects, not viewed as some kind of prize in itself?

Hopefully Maclaren’s reign will be coming to a close very soon, and we can employ a manager who knows how international football works, who understands that a friendly 5 days before a qualifying match is not the time to play a “first” team, and who can adjust the system to fit the team and vice versa. That man is not Steve Mclaren. Looking back I really have to think that the only people who were happy when Steve Mclaren took up the England job were his bank manager, and Middlesbrough fans…

AC Milan v Bayern Munich
PSV Eindhoven v Liverpool
Roma v Manchester United
Chelsea v Valencia

All ties to be played 3rd/4th April (first legs) and 10th/11th April (second legs). At the same time the draw for the Semi-finals was made as follows:

Chelsea or Valencia v PSV Eindhoven or Liverpool
Roma or Manchester United v AC Milan or Bayern Munich

First legs to be played 24th/25th April and second legs on 1st/2nd May. Obviously this semi-final draw throws up the chance of Man United vs either Chelsea or Liverpool in the final…

For me I can only see the positives in getting Shepherd out of the club. For far too long he’s had control and I feel it’s time for a change. It’s funny that other Newcastle fans have pointed out how much money he puts into the club. What they seem to fail to realise is where that money comes from (funnily enough, the club), and who puts money into the club? The sponsors and the fans. At 18p per share above the current trading price I can’t see how they could refuse this offer. Rumours are also circulating that, if the deal goes through, Roeder will be given £20m as a war chest to buy in some new talent. If this is true then this deal needs to be done sooner rather than later so that Roeder has time to deal in the January transfer window.

Whilst we’re continuing to prove that you can get by without a great depth to your squad (we have 15 squad players out injured at the moment) we still need more players. We need to be in the Premiership next season as the revenue from Sky increases dramatically (talk of £50m to each Premiership club next season) and this could be the cash injection that we need.

So where does this leave us? Well I think I’m amongst the majority of fans who feel that it is time for Shepherd to go. If he really has the love for the club that he claims, he must be able to see that accepting this offer is the right thing to do. Also, the £68m profit for him should be enough of a temptation to see him sell. I just hope he does the (semi)decent thing and sells…

But the problems last night don’t stop there. On the pitch there is only one word I can think of that sums up the performance. Incapable. And that goes from front to back. It appears that we have a new “Calamity” James in the shape of “Calamity” Robinson. Fair enough the ball bobbled over his foot when he went to clear Neville’s back-pass. But he wasn’t under any real pressure to kick it. He could have controlled it and played it out calmly. The defence looked shocking. Gary Neville was a spectator for the first goal (hope you got a good view of it Gary). Carragher looked shocking. Ferdinand seemed more interested in doing his utmost to get sent off rather than actually playing.

The midfield didn’t fair much better. Parker looked out of his depth. Carrick confirmed that only a lunatic would pay £17m for a player who can’t pass or control the ball. Lampard looked out of sorts again. None of the midfield seems happy on the ball and none of them instilled any confidence when it came to passing. Up front I almost have to weep. If Crouch and Rooney are the best pairing of English strokers at the moment then we might as well just give up now. Rooney is in a “crisis of confidence”. Fine. Don’t play him then. I’ve always been a big fan of using a system at International level whereby the best in-form players get to play. Unfortunately Mclaren seems to prefer sticking to ineffective pairings. Crouch looked tired and disinterested. To coin a phrase, between them, they couldn’t have scored in a brothel last night (which given Rooney’s alleged off-field antics is quite something!!). It’s heartening for me as a Newcastle United fan that it was mentioned 4 times on Sky’s coverage last night that “England are missing Michael Owen and his pace”. A speedy recovery would not go amiss!

So where does this leave us? Well we’re still in the running to qualify, no doubt about that. But if we continue to “perform” the way we did last night then what’s the point? The England team currently look completely disinterested in anything, and are a team in name alone. Nobody makes good running off the ball (especially Crouch) and we’re just not good enough. Hopefully this is just a blip and normal service will be resumed in the next match against Israel.

No, what I wanted to mention was the actions of some of the West Ham fans. It appears that some of them saw fit to approach the Newcastle dugout to “have words” with our manager, Glenn Roeder. You see Roeder user to be the manager at West Ham, and was with the club when they got relegated. It appears that the “words” that the fans were going to have with Roeder relate to the unforgivable crime of…. waving to the Newcastle fans. It appears that this outraged some of the West Ham fans who voiced their displeasure at the man who, after they were relegated, they couldn’t wait to get rid of. Seems that moving to a bigger club has opened up some wounds for the “Happy Hammers”. A wound into which salt was duly rubbed by the final score yesterday…