Al reet now?

A very elaborate and carefully planned joke? If so, consider us taken in - along with Auntie Beeb and the Guardian, amongst many others.

If we're honest, few of us didn't envisage Alan Shearer becoming manager of Newcastle Utd at some point. Now may not be an opportune time, to say the least - we're third bottom, with title-chasing Chelsea and Rory Delap's Stoke our next two opponents. But, as has been pointed out before, few managers walk into a new job with everything rosy - that's the whole reason the position's vacant in the first place.

So what does Al have to gain? In short, further respect, admiration and good will.

And what does he have to lose? Much (if not quite all) of the respect, admiration and good will he's already accumulated over a ten year playing career with the club.

Let's face it: it's a massive gamble, on his part as much as on the part of the man whose regime he diplomatically described as "strange" in the wake of mentor and friend Kevin Keegan's departure in September.

Needless to say it's a gamble I really, really hope pays off.

The revelation raises any number of questions - not least about where this leaves the current incumbent (quite literally), on the road to recovery after his heart surgery. No doubt he'll be turning the air a deep shade of blue regardless of doctors' orders...

More to follow.