Shearer steps in to answer Newcastle’s SOS I George Caulkin: Shearer offers hope I Newcastle turn to the new Messiah I Marcotti: I admire Shearer's courage I Farewell Shearer the pundit I Fanzone: Newcastle couldn't be in better hands I Shearer faces daunting task I Debate: Can Shearer save Newcastle?

There are certain reasons why the phrase “Geordie Messiah” sprung so readily to mind last night as news of Alan Shearer’s appointment at St James’ Park filtered through. Newcastle United is a club that calls out for such intervention, just as it did when Kevin Keegan came to their rescue 17 years ago, although, as on that occasion, there is a case for aping the Monty Python team and arguing that, while there is a mess all right, there can be no Messiah.

The question, from Shearer’s point of view, is simple: why now? He has been so content in the comfort of the Match of the Day studio for so long, since retiring at the end of the 2005-06 season, that he seemed to be holding out for the perfect moment to fulfil his apparent destiny as Newcastle manager. He was supposed to be waiting until his hometown club had sunk to rock bottom, until it had reached the point at which it could only be propelled upwards, but instead he has taken over at a time when he must fear that Newcastle could yet slip even further towards oblivion.

That was Keegan’s fear in February 1992, when he took the call from Sir John Hall, who told him that there were only two people who could save Newcastle and that they were on opposite ends of the telephone line. Keegan arrested the decline, his mere presence giving a much-needed sense of belief and momentum to a team that had been in freefall and had them looking up towards the Premier League, where very soon they were giving Manchester United a run for their money, but, in Shearer’s case, the fear is that there is further to fall.

Newcastle were in a predicament long before Joe Kinnear took over as caretaker-manager in September, after the predictably short-lived Second Coming of Kevin Keegan, but now they are in the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League and in severe need of rescue. They have won just once in 12 league matches since December 21 and, with their next matches coming at home to Chelsea and away to Stoke City, there is a growing fear that they will be beyond help if they leave it any longer, a point clearly not lost on Mike Ashley, the club’s embattled and clearly terrified owner.

There is no reason whatsoever to assume that Shearer is a great manager in waiting. There is, however, every reason to assume that his appointment will engender the kind of fervour and excitement that, coupled with the passion in the stands at St James’ Park, might prove the difference in the final reckoning at the end of the season.

The suspicion is that this is a terribly short-sighted, short-term choice, but that is what everybody said of Keegan’s appointment at the time. It is what Newcastle need, which says everything about the depression that has engulfed the club in recent years. It is much the same now, as he takes over from Kinnear, an interim manager, and Chris Hughton, the caretaker manager, and, while the perils of dropping down into the old third division, which was about to be rebranded as the second division in 1992, were severe, it must be recognised that there is even more to lose right now.

The presumption is that the club have nothing to lose. It really has got that bad, just as it had by the time Keegan arrived 17 years ago. An upturn appears inevitable. If not, then it is not just his own long-term prospects that will take a nosedive.