Newcastle United fans have put up with a lot over the years but selling “naming rights” for James’ Park might be the final straw for some fans.

At 10pm on Tuesday the club announced that Chris Hughton would be made full-time manager and that owner Mike Ashley would no longer be selling and instead would inject 20 million pounds this week.

Slipped in among the back-slapping was the news that the club would welcome bids for the naming rights of the ground the club has occupied with pride since 1892.

Newcastle fans have had years of fun abusing Sunderland for what they consider the pretentious “Stadium of Light” which replaced Roker Park 12 years ago and now their fiercest rivals are poised to return the favour when one of the most famous and atmospheric grounds in the country becomes an advert.

Supporters have become less sensitive about names of new or rebuilt stadiums since the days when Millwall’s Den was imaginatively named “The New Den” and selling the naming rights to a new ground, such as the Emirates Stadium, is no longer that controversial.

Slapping a new name on an established ground, however, is another matter entirely.

Manchester United, never slow to miss a commercial opportunity, would surely never consider losing “Old Trafford” even though the sort of fee they could command for such a deal would dwarf anything Newcastle could hope to raise.

Imagine Liverpool’s players trotting down the tunnel and reaching up to pat a sign reading “This is the ACME Co Stadium”, with the world-famous Anfield relegated to the club museum.

Such decisions are exactly why Ashley is so disliked and distrusted by the rank and file Newcastle fans, something that cannot be changed by donning a replica shirt and downing a few pints amongst them.

The forum of the city’s Evening Chronicle newspaper website was overflowing with comments from angry fans on Wednesday.

Though some fans said it was not a major issue and that the money would be welcome, the overall feeling was very opposed. “Magpie5uk” led the way with the following heartfelt pros:

“This completely detached buffoon has to be stopped. He is unscrupulous, and will not stop until he has taken everything that not only fans, but people of Newcastle in general, appreciate. He is systematically destroying everything that means anything to the fans.
For instance:
1…Our Premier League Status.
2…Our top players.
3…Kevin Keegan.
4…Alan Shearer.
5…Our dignity.
6…Our humility.
7…Our enjoyment of Saturday Afternoons.
8…(AND POSSIBLY THE WORST OF ALL!) Our heritage, with this DISGRACEFUL decision to sell the name of the ground!!!
This man MUST be stopped!!”

PHOTO: Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley (C) at St James’ Park, Feb 1, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

On the face of it, replacing world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo with an injury-prone forward whose side just got relegated does not seem like a great bit of business.

The British media is certain that Michael Owen, a free agent after leaving Newcastle United, is on the verge of joining Manchester United if he passes a stringent medical.

Has Alex Ferguson gone mad? Far from it. Having banked 80 million pounds from the sale of Ronaldo to Real Madrid, he is poised to bring in one of English football’s most renowned goalscorers for free. And Owen is still under 30.

Even if Owen only ends up playing half a season, he will still be able to contribute and his England partnership with Wayne Rooney always looked promising.

However, United fans will hope Owen and Wigan’s Antonio Valencia will not be the only new recruits.

What do you reckon? An inspired signing or a gamble doomed to failure?

PHOTO: Newcastle United’s Michael Owen reacts during their FA Cup third round replay against Hull City, Jan. 14, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

Alan Shearer has a big decision on his hands after his eight-game stint in charge of Newcastle United ended in relegation from the Premier League on Sunday.

Most fans of the club will be desperate for Shearer, the club’s record goalscorer, to be handed the job of rebuilding the team as they prepare for life outside the top flight.

But is sentiment once again in danger of clouding the judgement of those who will make the decision? After all, Newcastle appear in such a mess that surely a manager of vast experience is needed.

Then again, Kevin Keegan was a managerial rookie when he took over in 1992 with the club heading for the third tier of English football and he transformed them into a side that almost landed the Premier League title.

The recent record of former big name players making the jump to manage big clubs is not great, however. Paul Ince failed at Blackburn Rovers, Tony Adams at Portsmouth and Roy Keane ultimately walked away from Sunderland.

Geordie fans will demand an instant return to the top flight and that will heap huge pressure on whoever is in charge next season. Shearer would be given more leeway than an outsider, but it would still be a huge gamble for him and the club.

If it failed, where would they go from there?

Owner Mike Ashley would be best served by approaching a proven manager such as Wigan Athletic’s Newcastle-born boss Steve Bruce with Shearer involved as an assistant.

Fulham’s Roy Hodgson would also be a safe bet as would former Tottenham Hotspur boss Martin Jol who has often expressed a wish to return to English football.

However, logic has tended to go out of the window at Newcastle down the years. With Ashley still trying to appease the fans after Keegan’s sudden exit this season from his second stint as manager, Shearer is clear favourite — if he wants the job.

After eight weeks of stress, he may just head back for the BBC studios for the less health-damaging career of football punditry.

PHOTO: Alan Shearer throws the ball back into play during their English Premier League match against Aston Villa, May 24, 2009. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

England’s most popular soap operas thrive on a weekly recipe of misery, doom and gloom that is gobbled up by television viewers seeking some relief from their own trials and tribulations.

In that sense, the final weekend of the Premier League season is quite similar.

With Manchester United already polishing the trophy again after sealing a third consecutive title last week, neutral television viewers are salivating at the prospect of watching the suffering of fans of Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Hull City and Sunderland as their clubs desperately scarp for top flight survival.

Like the inevitable rubber-neckers at road traffic accidents, there is something cruelly compulsive about the raw emotions of relegation D-Day.

For those poor fans at Villa Park, the KC Stadium, Upton Park and The Stadium of Light, fingernails will be whittled down to nothing as their sides hover between survival and exile from Planet Premier League and all its hype and glamour.

Sadly, there is usually one club that the majority of neutral voyeurs want to see fall off the cliff — and this year they play in black and white stripes.

Newcastle are seen as a club suffering delusions from grandeur, a trigger-happy approach to hiring and firing managers and for many, the epitomy of all that is rotten with the Premier League.

Massive salaries for sub-standard overseas players, big debts, big egos. Big fat nothing in the trophy cabinet. It sounds very much like Leeds United of a few seasons ago and look where they are now.

West Bromwich Albion gained tremendous respect this season for their football and their dignity despite already being relegated. They are bound to come back sooner rather than later.

Middlesbrough too have shown admirable loyalty to manager Gareth Southgate, a young English coach who trusts young home-grown players.

Hull have also contributed fully to an interesting Premier League season, their first in the top flight, playing exciting football in the early months and at one stage mixing it with the big boys in the top six.

Newcastle have also added plenty of colour. Kevin Keegan’s shock exit, the fans bitterness to owner Mike Ashley which involved threats to his safety, the recruitment of a manager with a heart condition and a nice touch in Anglo-Saxon expletives, plenty of player strops and finally the recruitment of TV pundit Alan Shearer as coach, yet another Geordie Messiah.

Add in the antics of wildman Joey Barton and the sulking Charles N’Zogbia (named Insomnia by recovering manager Joe Kinnear) and it really is a heady brew.

So thanks Newcastle….it’s been great fun watching you this season and we will all be tuning in for another 90 minutes of black (and white) comedy on Sunday.

PHOTO: Newcastle United’s manager Alan Shearer (R) and his assistant coach Ian Dowie gesture to their players during their English Premier League soccer match against Fulham in Newcastle, northeast England May 16, 2009. REUTERS/David Moir

Newcastle’s interim boss and Geordie hero Alan Shearer opened St. James’ Park on Tuesday and his Premier League side trained in front of 7,500 fans.

It could prove to be a masterstroke. As the sun shone down and school kids on half-term flocked to the stadium, it had the city buzzing again just two days after the disappointing loss to Chelsea.

But the Geordie faithful are precisely that, and rarely do they turn their backs in disgust when things aren’t going well, just ask Habib Beye.

If the Magpies don’t escape relegation, it will be horribly sad to see St. James’ Park half-full at best for Championship games.

Newcastle’s run-in however is a tough one, and with just seven games remaining I fear for the club and their most loyal fans.

Seeing the optimism that abounded on Tuesday among the young faces was uplifting, but the effect Shearer’s return has had could turn to heartbreaking scenes come the season’s end.

PHOTO: Newcastle United’s interim coach Alan Shearer gestures during their training session at St James’ Park in Newcastle April 7, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

Well, at least we now know it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke… Alan Shearer has been confirmed as Newcastle manager for the final eight matches of the season.

He faces a Herculean task in keeping Newcastle up and with no managerial experience to his name the odds must be against him.

Click here for the full story, and let us know in the comments if you think the move is inspired, desperate, desperately inspired or just plain daft.

PHOTO: A Newcastle United fan is seen outside St James’ Park in Newcastle, April 1, 2009. Alan Shearer will become the club’s new manager until the end of the present season. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

I've been scouting around for some sporting April Fools but I've not spotted many good ones.

Maybe some websites and blogs have held off on the jokes given the state of the world economy is no laughing matter.

Gazzetta dello Sport's French football blog Sotto La Tour Eiffel says Zinedine Zidane will come out of retirement to play for Marseille.

Have you seen any better April Fools? We are assuming of course that Alan Shearer is really going to manage Newcastle United. However, there has been no official confirmation so far...

It sounds like an April Fool’s joke but apparently it’s true: Alan Shearer looks set to be confirmed as caretaker manager of Newcastle United until the end of the season.

Now, Newcastle could certainly do with a touch of inspiration as they bid to preserve the top flight status they have held since winning promotion back to the top tier in 1993.

But is Shearer up to the job of becoming the club’s latest saviour? He certainly faces a steep learning curve if he is indeed to become Newcastle’s fourth manager of the season.

Newcastle have eight Premier League matches remaining this season, starting with a home match against Chelsea on Saturday.

Can the 15 million pound man who scored 206 goals in 404 appearances for Newcastle transfer that record of success on the field to his new role? And if he does keep them up, should he sign up for the long haul?

FILE PHOTO: Newcastle United’s captain Alan Shearer looks on following the final whistle his testimonial  match against Celtic at St James’ Park in Newcastle, May 11, 2006. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

Quite how far Michael Owen’s career has nosedived was underlined at the weekend when the Newcastle United striker was again overlooked for his country despite the lack of attacking options for coach Fabio Capello.

Capello watched three of his squad strikers hobble off at Wembley on Saturday during the 4-0 friendly victory over Slovakia with Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole both ruled out of Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine.

With Peter Crouch also carrying a knock, surely the time had come for Capello to get on the telephone to Owen, a player with 40 goals in 89 appearances for his country and who was voted Europe’s best player in 2001.

Instead, Capello bluntly dismissed the case for Owen, saying he felt the striker was not playing well enough for his club. Capello turned to the much-maligned Darren Bent, a willing runner but hardly a finisher in the same class as Owen.

It is hard to see where Owen now fits into Capello’s plans. The Italian appears to favour a big target man playing in tandem with the versatile Wayne Rooney. Owen’s penalty area prowess is clearly not enough for Capello.

At 29, and after a series of injuries, Owen does not have the explosive pace that was once his trademark and he can look hesitant in front of goal. He has scored just once in his last 10 matches for relegation-haunted Newcastle and it is a year since he last played for England.

So is there any hope of an international return for the former Liverpool man? A move away from St James’ Park would be a first step but any journey back to the top of European football looks like being a long and painstaking one.

HAPPIER TIMES: Michael Owen poses alongside Fabio Capello at the launch of the England team’s new away kit, February 4, 2008. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Things are looking grim in the north east, England’s fabled “hotbed of soccer”. 

The phrase, if you are interested, was used for many years to describe the passion for football in the region before a scholarly book by reknowned journalist Arthur Appleton “Hotbed of Soccer - the story of football in the North East” was published in 1960 and told a mainly successful story.

If a similar tome was being written today, I’d suggest a more apt title might be “The Frozen Wasteland of Soccer — Under-Achievement, Broken Dreams and Very Few Trophies in the North East.”

A suitable sub-title? “Staring Relegation in the Face in 2009.”

With the end of the English Premier League season fast approaching, Newcastle United and Middlesbrough occupy two of the three relegation places with only seemingly-doomed West Bromwich Albion beneath them.

Sunderland, the region’s other major power, may appear to be safe in 14th spot, but they are only three points above Newcastle and five ahead of Boro.

One online betting service on Tuesday was offering odds of 25-1 that all three north east clubs will go down — and who knows, if West Brom launch the kind of miraculous escape they managed in 2005, that could still happen. (more…)