When we bought Shearer he was at the very top of his game, arguably the best all-round CF in the world pound for pound and he had numerous clubs after him from Man Utd to Barcelona. Obviously being a Geordie helped him to make the decision to choose us, but had we not been at the time capable of challenging for the best, he wouldn't have looked at us twice.
Back then we could compete with anyone in world football financially and competitively on the pitch. In SJH we had an owner/chairman who was a brilliant businessman and in KK we had one of the world's most recognizable football names who was capable of selling sand to the Arabs that's how good he was.
Combined we were a force like no other. That club is long dead and we will never as fans ever belong to a club like that as long as Ashley is here. That to me is soul destroying and worthy of me handing in my notice so to speak RE supporting the club which is effectively what I've done.
But Shearer...

By the way he's becoming a very good pundit these days, far more authoritative and more outspoken, but also speaking a great deal of sense.
I'd still love to see him get back into management because I feel he has enough in him to be a decent manager. From what I've heard behind the scenes, when he took over NUFC for a few games, he was full of very good ideas, but he foolishly tried to implement them all straight away, this to a bunch of players who by that stage had zero fight nor interest in what was best for NUFC.