Despite calling time on his playing career two decades ago, it is still rare for Shearer to find himself with a weekend off.Now a regular pundit on Match of the Day, as well as co-commentating on England games and sitting alongside Gary Lineker and Micah Richards on The Rest Is Football podcast, he has become one of the most respected pundits in the game.But that was not always going to be the case.Unsure of whether he would enter the world of management or media post-retirement, Shearer served as interim Newcastle manager in 2009 for the remaining eight games of the season.It ended badly, with the Magpies relegated and Shearer never returning to the dugout."Newcastle were were in desperate trouble and I could never say no - we were bottom of the league, fighting for our lives," he said."I should have known that when I signed the contract on April Fool's Day that it wasn't going to work out!"I always felt that I was going to go into it again and I wanted to. I had a couple of interviews and got offered the job at Cardiff.
And then things changed ... and I thought, 'what am I doing here?'"That ended Shearer's brief brush with management and he returned to punditry, spending his weekends travelling between Newcastle and Salford for Match of the Day."It is such a long day. For me travelling from Newcastle, it's a probably 19-20 hour day," he said."What people don't realise is that you're meant to be at your brightest and your liveliest when you go on live at 10:30, whereas if you're watching football all day on the settee, you're ready to nod off at that time."Watching so much Premier League football, at least Shearer is able to monitor that goal-scoring record of his.