Statistics make worrying reading for Magpies

Newcastle fans are so caught up in the loss of Kevin Keegan and the imminent football apocalypse that his absence will cause, that they haven’t considered an even more daunting prospect: Sunderland might finish above them for the first time since 2000/01 season!

Here’s why:

1. When Sunderland finished above Newcastle in 1999-00, the Magpies switched manager - Ruud Gullit out, Bobby Robson in - less than a month into the season.

2. In the last three seasons where a manager has left Newcastle within a month of the season starting - 1998-99, 1999-00, 2004-05 - the club have finished the season in the bottom half.

3. The last time Sunderland survived

Blackburn not good enough for inexperienced MOTD pundit

The Daily Telegraph are today reporting that Alan Shearer may turn down the chance to succeed Mark Hughes because he “is not convinced that Blackburn would be the right place for him.”

Yes that’s right, a man whose post-retirement career has relied on professionally stating the bleedin’ obvious (and making Mark Lawrenson’s analysis seem groundbreaking in comparison) on Match of the Day could turn down the seventh-best team in the Premier League because they aren’t ‘right’ for him.

In comparison, the candidates who could miss out because of Shearer’s apparent God-given right to a top job are Sam Allardyce, who took Bolton to a League Cup Final and into Europe, and Paul Ince, who since retiring has knuckled down and spent 18 months overachieving with Franchise FC in League Two, winning two trophies.

Shearer also appears ignorant of the opportunities afforded to Blackburn managers - the last two