Ex-Newcastle Man Reveals Mike Ashley Didn't Discuss Dismissal With Former Manager Alan Shearer

Ex-Newcastle United man Paul Ferris has revealed that owner Mike Ashley never gave Alan Shearer a proper explanation for not giving him the Magpies managerial job in 2009.

The 2008/09 season was a dismal campaign for the Magpies, with the club being relegated at the end of the season. Alan Shearer was brought in at the end of the season, with the hopes of keeping his boy-hood club up. However, the Englishman couldn't pull-off a great escape.

Speaking ahead of his new book 'The Boy on the Shed', Ferris, who was part of Shearer's managerial staff while in charge at Newcastle, has revealed that Ashley never gave the Premier League's all-time leading goalscorer a reason why he wasn't kept on as manager, as reported by the Chronicle Live.

“We had eight weeks at the end of a season to turn a disastrous campaign into something else. We were the fourth management team of that season after Kevin, Chris Hughton, Joe Kinnear.

“You walk into Derek Llambias and we didn’t see much of Mike Ashley. They were supportive in that eight weeks of getting the help you need to be successful. At the end of that season we just fell short."

Ferris said: “All of the noise coming from them, and all the noises in the city were that Alan would be the next manager of the football club.

“He wanted it, and they wanted him to be manager too. We then had a meeting two days later and Mike Ashley caught us on the hop because the first thing he said was: ‘I’m selling the football club.’"

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Ferris then spoke about Ashely's public reasoning for not giving Shearer the job:

“I thought Mike would see that as Alan being passion and vision for the club. Then I see Mike Ashley on Sky Sports saying he made a decision that Alan lacked experience. That’s the first time I’d heard that."

It seemed at the time that it would have been a good appointment for the Toon Army, however it wasn't to be. Since then the club has been relegated and promoted on multiple occasions, and if Shearer had been given the job, maybe they could have become a regular Premier League side.