Only eight games to save the world

NEWCASTLE, England: Alan Shearer is to become Newcastle's fourth manager this season after agreeing to take on the challenge of saving the club he used to captain from relegation but he has just eight games to save the club from the financially calamitous consequences of relegation.

Newcastle are currently third from bottom of the Premier League, two points adrift of Blackburn, the club currently occupying the last survival spot.

"Like thousands of people in Newcastle, I desperately don't want this club to go down and I'll be working with the staff to try and prevent that," Shearer, 38, told BBC radio.