COMING from the North East I am very interested in the debate concerning who should be appointed the next manager of Newcastle United.

Alan Shearer seems the people's choice but the two big questions are does he want it and is he ready for it?

He's 37, and I became manager of Hartlepool at 34 although I fell into the job really after going there as a player, thinking that ending my career at my first club would be the romantic thing to do.

Ideally, I think you should have your playing career, and then have about four or five years learning the ropes as a coach rather than going straight into the breach as manager. But, in this case, I think Newcastle should offer the job to Shearer.

There are 55,000 people wanting him to do it, and, if it doesn't work out, the fans cannot turn around and say we didn't want him anyway, like they have done with Sam Allardyce. They would also give him massive support and every chance to make a go of it.

If he was given the job, though, he needs a team of really experienced people around him and I don't know whether Kevin Keegan should be one of them. It might be seen as the dream ticket for many Newcastle fans but Keegan was never really a great coach or tactician and I don't know whether his gung-ho approach would work any more. It started to look a bit naïve.

If I was Shearer, I would also be deliberating whether I wanted to risk my reputation as an absolute legend in Newcastle, because he couldn't have done anything more for the club as a player. He might not have won any trophies but that wasn't down to him: if he had been selfish, he could have won them elsewhere.

He's got to think about whether he wants to ruin that and take the chance of being perceived as a managerial failure. For me, the best job in the world is pontificating on Match of the Day as a former top player. At the moment, nobody can question his judgement on that show, whereas as soon as you have had a hard time as a manager, people begin to doubt your credibility.

I also wonder whether he really wants it. If he did, surely he would have been collecting all his coaching badges by now.

For me, football management is a horrible job. It's very taxing mentally and dominates your life. He doesn't need the fame, plaudits or money either.

He's got to consider whether he could really turn things around there because Newcastle don't want to be just a top ten club. They want to be challenging Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

One of the massive problems behind establishing a club in the North East that can challenge the big four has always been attracting players. Even at Hartlepool, I could never get anybody to sign from down south, even though times have changed and the area is not as dour as it was once believed to be.

The North East is more salubrious and Newcastle is a really, nice cosmopolitan city, but it still doesn't seem to have the pulling power clubs in London, Manchester and Liverpool enjoy.

I think the passion the supporters have is greater though. Middlesbrough are well-backed for a small town, Sunderland's Stadium of Light was recently named the noisiest stadium in the Premier League, and there's something like a three-year waiting list to become a season-ticket holder at Newcastle. They could easily get crowds of 70,000 and their fan base makes them a big club even if their record over the last 50 years doesn't.

For me, Big Sam was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a good fire-fighter at Bolton but Newcastle have different expectations.

I was surprised that Harry Redknapp didn't take the post. If he was keen on the England job, I thought he might have seen being in charge of Newcastle as an opportunity to prove himself as the great attacking coach he is being heralded as by some people.

Talking about taking opportunities, I hope York City grab their second chance at making progress in the FA Trophy at Grays tonight. Any competition with a final at Wembley is worth making progress in and I wish Colin Walker and his side all the best.