Mark Hughes was installed as the favourite last night to succeed Sam Allardyce at Newcastle United, but Harry Redknapp, the manager who got away, has endorsed Alan Shearer’s claims to make a remarkable return to his home-town club. “Shearer would set the place alight,” Redknapp, who rejected the advances of Mike Ashley, the Newcastle owner, on Saturday morning, said.

Hughes, the Blackburn Rovers manager, deflected questions regarding his future after his team’s 2-1 victory over Bolton Wanderers yesterday, but, now in his fourth year at Ewood Park, he is eager for a new challenge. Newcastle would provide that; Hughes is prepared to speak to the North East club and John Williams, the Blackburn chairman, is expecting contact.

“It’s a hypothetical question and I don’t answer hypothetical questions,” Hughes, 44, said. “In football, you never say never, but I’m very happy to be the Blackburn manager. I’m very comfortable. You need time in football and I have been given time.” Sports Direct, Ashley’s company, has previously sponsored Blackburn, a deal that Newcastle’s billionaire owner conducted himself.

A senior source at St James’ Park maintained yesterday that Redknapp was “never the only name in the frame” to succeed Allardyce. “There is a difference between a job interview and a job offer,” the source said. “We have spoken to more than one person and we will be speaking to more people this week and it won’t be narrowed down to these shores.”

Newcastle still insist that experience is the main criterion, ruling out Shearer’s candidacy. While the club’s record scorer has told his BBC employers that he is “highly unlikely” to be installed in the role, he would accept it, although not in a junior capacity. That would dictate against an emotional pairing of Shearer and Kevin Keegan, the former Newcastle manager.

For Redknapp, who opted to remain at Fratton Park despite the “great opportunity” offered to him by Chris Mort, the Newcastle chairman, during their meeting in London on Friday, Shearer is the obvious choice to revitalise a team who were thrashed 6-0 by Manchester United on Saturday.

“I would give Alan the job,” Redknapp said after Portsmouth’s 2-0 defeat away to Sunderland yesterday. “It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have the experience. He knows the place inside out and that would compensate.”

Redknapp described as “absolute nonsense” Newcastle’s claims that he had requested to commute to Newcastle from his home in Dorset by private jet. “Let’s not kid anyone — it did not happen because I didn’t want the job,” he said. “I’m fed up with it all. I just want to get away from it. It has all been a bit overpowering. I love my life, so I had no need to change.”

Sir John Hall, the former Newcastle chairman and the club’s life president, has recommended Gérard Houllier, the former Liverpool manager, for the job and does not believe that Keegan, with whom he worked closely on Tyneside, will return. “Kevin has had his time in football and after the pressure he was under in all his jobs, I don’t think his family would want that again,” Hall said.

Ashley was reported yesterday as saying it was time to put his black and white shirt away and take more of an active role in the running of the club. Newcastle denied this, however. “As usual, Mike will be sitting with Newcastle fans at the next away game,” a source said. “The idea that he is going to be hands-on in the boardroom from now on is incorrect.”