We all love Alan Shearer.....BUT....

[ghostrider]

Does anyone think he may have had too much influence over the club and sort of creating obstacles for new managers and even players, as well as the hierarchy due to us fans holding onto him for too long as an idol in playing terms?

It seems that Bobby Robson said Shearer betrayed him and Ruud Gullit said he couldn't make any real inroads because he was basically undermined by the overall adherence to Shearers influence by all and sundry, type of thing.

I know it's so easy for us all to argue cases for people like Shearer against any outsider and it's natural for us to sort of "guard our own" type of thing...but let's all try and look at it all from a neutral perspective...as best we can... and give our thoughts on what we think should have happened or could have happened with respect to the overall club if things were allowed to be different.

I mean, we all knew Shearer was running on half empty with his injuries and age. I think we all knew he was past his sell by date in terms of playing for us....but the Geordie fight and loyalty in him, plus the natural idolisation of him, warped our minds in favour of him. It did for me at the time, I admit it....but in hindsight I actually know that we held on too long in the playing stakes with him.

I just wonder if we as fans seem to, at times, do more harm to the team mindset and managerial/owner mindset when basically putting a protective fan blanket around players like Shearer which sort of makes it impossible for managers and owners, plus team players to actually make their own judgement for the betterment of the club due to a one man (in this case) influence of the time and his vociferous backing of the fans and the city.

I'd appreciate a balanced thought on it because this isn't about having a dig at Shearers amazing career and loyalty to the club and efforts he put in because without question, fit or unfit...injured or not...he gave 100% for the cause.

However, the issue arises of being....was it allowed to go on for far too long at the detriment of the progression of the club?

I suppose the biggest problem we all have as fans is, we have to wait for years and years to actually gain some kind of inner insight into this type of stuff and can only try to best guess any scenarios based on mainly an outside the window looking in type mindset, which can paint half a picture but never align the storyline to it, in most cases.

Anyway It'll be interesting to see people's views on it from their own personal thoughts on those times.