Why Shearer will save the Toon

At no other club in the world could the arrival of a former player spark such intense scenes of joy than those witnessed on Tyneside this week.

But then, there is no club in the world like Newcastle United. Perennial underachievers, Newcastle are certainly not the only club in the league with ideas above their station, but they are the biggest team in the relegation scrap, and one whose supporters will demand that they stay up.

And stay up they should, having brought in a man who will ignite a Geordie revolution. In his playing days Alan Shearer was regarded as a god on Tyneside, scoring 206 goals in 404 games for the club. Shearer is without doubt Newcastle's greatest son. The sheer devotion, admiration and loyalty shown to him is unparalleled, he is the living embodiment of Newcastle United.

As a manager Shearer's experience is non-existent, but he has worked with some of the top managers in English football. In only eight games he will not be able to replicate the success of former task-masters Sir Bobby Robson, Kevin Keegan or Terry Venables, but having played under these men, Shearer will know the value great motivators can have on the players, and this is where he will look to galvanise the Magpies' dressing room.

Having inherited a club third bottom in the Premier League with one of the hardest run-ins of all their rivals, there is no doubt he has his work cut out. But Shearer does not need to reinvent the wheel. The former Toon no.9 doesn't need to teach his side to play like Arsenal or Manchester United. What he needs to do, is get them to work their socks off and play with passion, confidence, and direction, the very attributes that Shearer himself exuded on the pitch in his playing days.

Key to Newcastle's survival will be Michael Owen's form. The striker has had a fairly torrid time in the north-east, plagued by injury, he is no-longer even recognised as an option for England. But if anyone can bring the best out of Owen then it is his old friend, colleague and mentor, Alan Shearer.