Newcastle legend Alan Shearer piles pressure on Eddie Howe in X-rated rant

Alan Shearer was left fuming with Newcastle after defeat to Sunderland on Sunday and expects ‘so much s*** thrown’ at manager Eddie Howe in the coming weeks.

The Magpies took the lead in the Tyne-Wear derby through Anthony Gordon after just 10 minutes, but things went badly wrong from there.

Chemsdine Talbi equalised just before the hour-mark at St James’ Park and Brian Brobbey scored the winner for the Black Cats at the death.

Sunderland also won the reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light on a dream return season in the Premier League for them and a campaign which is proving to be something of a nightmare for Newcastle.

Defeat on Sunday left Howe’s side 12th in the top flight and already out of all the cup competitions, beaten by Barcelona in the Champions League last week.

Shearer was raging with his former club after the loss on Sunday, posting on X: ‘A pathetic, weak, lazy, limp second half from Newcastle again.’
He went into more detail on The Rest is Football, saying he expects intense scrutiny to come on Howe and the hierarchy at St James’ Park.

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‘I was getting so annoyed and so angry,’ he said of the second half performance.

‘Sunderland were the better team and punished us.

‘Brian Brobbey was probably the best player for Sunderland.

£17m he cost from Ajax, you compare to Newcastle’s recruitment in the summer and what they’ve paid on forwards.

There lies the problem.

‘That’s been a huge problem for Newcastle, inconsistency.

Sunderland wanted it more than Newcastle and that was pretty damning.

Particularly after the way Newcastle played in the first game at the Stadium of Light, Eddie got it all wrong that game and he couldn’t lift his players in the second half and that is really worrying and disappointing.’
The Premier League record scorer added: ‘Well done Sunderland, they were the better team and deserved to win, good on them, as much as it hurts me to say that.

‘But worrying for Newcastle, big questions will be asked, and it’s going to be a long two or three weeks for Newcastle now, the international break, because people will be hurt, people will be angry, and they’ll be so much s*** thrown at Eddie and Newcastle now.

He has to cope with that and understand that, as do the people running the club.

‘Well done Sunderland, enjoy your season, you deserved to beat us on both occasions, but really s*** from a Newcastle point of view.’
It was suggested to Shearer that Newcastle could have been flagging after their 7-2 defeat in Barcelona last Wednesday, but he was not willing to take that on board.

‘I’m not accepting that, not in a derby game,’ he said.

‘I don’t buy that.

You can’t be tired, that’s not an excuse.’
Howe took the blame for the defeat, saying: ‘We haven’t done our jobs well enough today and we’re desperately disappointed in ourselves.

‘I’m fully committed to the job.

I’m disappointed in my delivery today and my delivery in the last week.

The Barcelona game was very tough, today was even tougher.

As I said after the Brentford game, I absorb that blame myself.

‘I don’t look to deflect it anywhere and I certainly won’t deflect it to my players.

I protect my players until my last breath.

That’s how I look at it and it’s going to be a tough, painful few days for me.’
However, he did suggest it has been very difficult for Newcastle to continue on an upward trend after the initial investment from their Saudi owners, due to PSR rules.

‘The rules have made it very difficult to have momentum to go with the speed it (the club) initially went with,’ he said.

‘I don’t know a way we can beat that system.

We have to follow the rules that are set, the club desperately want to be ambitious but there is a limit to what we can spend.

‘That has a knock on effect on everything we do.

To not recruit for that many windows, I don’t know a team that would not suffer from that.

We certainly have, and then losing Alexander Isak last summer was a considerable blow.

But again we can’t feel sorry for ourselves and use excuses.

‘We have to find a way to be successful despite all of those things.

But with that there has to be an understanding of the type of conditions we are under.’