Cascarino - Newcastle Built On Sand!

Tony Cascarino, pundit for the New Football Pools on the appointment of Alan Shearer.

'Newcastle United football club never cease to amaze me in their quest to keep 52,000 fans on seats. Once again they have made a major appointment in an attempt to excite the Geordie faithful but it really is a sandcastle of a club with no foundations.

The club just seems to go for 'names` as managers purely to excite the fans but this one is a massive gamble. I think Mike Ashley has seen that the club need some excitement as the mood amongst the fans was that they were on their way down. The general feeling in football is that Newcastle were likely to collapse the way they have been run so this is seen as a quick fix to rejuvenate the club for the final run-in.

The choice of Alan Shearer is a massive gamble as he has no managerial experience and has basically been sitting on the couch for the past two years. I don`t know enough about him to comment on his tactical awareness but to expect him to tactically outthink seasoned managers is a big ask. After all, he is up against one of the most experienced managers in world football in his first game in the shape of Guus Hiddink. It will be a tough job to outwit him so I think Shearer is more likely to put out sides from now until the end of the season to throw the kitchen sink at teams.

Shearer needs to get his Newcastle side playing high up the park and really having a go at teams, I can`t see him playing 1 up front and trying to be cagey. The situation they are in is dire so he really needs to get the players and crowd up for a battle and take the game to the opposition. It`s going to be all about passion from now on.

Newcastle face a really tough run-in which I honestly can`t see them suriving as they are so poor defensively. Alan was a forward so I can`t see him being able to turn his defence around in a short space of time as the Newcastle back four are like Dutch Cheese, holes everywhere!

The situation is drastic, the appointment is a risky one but with relegation staring them in the face, this is the last throw of the dice for Newcastle.'

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