Newcastle United are a team and a club that are clearly going places under Eddie Howe and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Notwithstanding they’re still a way from being the finished article, there can’t be too much doubt that, in time, the Magpies will finally be celebrating the major silverware that they’ve been craving since the 1950s.
It was a different story back in 2009 when Newcastle legend, Alan Shearer, was parachuted into the club to try and save them from relegation.
Ultimately, he wasn’t able to stop the team from plummeting into the Championship, and now it appears he’d wanted the chance to bring them straight back up again.
Moreover, he believed he was going to be given the opportunity to do just that.
“Yeah, absolutely, we shook hands on a deal (to become permanent Newcastle manager),” he said on the The Rest is Football podcast.
“I was told I was going to be the manager. We agreed everything, and they said they’d be in touch, but I’m still waiting for the call!
“I got a call later saying there was an issue with the bank. That was in 2009 and I’m still waiting for the call, the answer to that is yes I did.”
Given that Shearer hasn’t had any other jobs in management, it does beg the question as to whether Mike Ashley did actually do some good during his time at the club.
Shearer certainly talks a good game and played one too, but as everyone knows, great players don’t always make the best managers.
A legend in Newcastle, his status with the Toon Army might well have been tarnished had he not been able to get a tune out of the players he had under his tutelage and the time.