Alan Shearer is still after the Newcastle manager's job despite Joe Kinnear's assertion that he's been offered a two-year contract.
After relegation from the Premier League last season, the Magpies are in turmoil with no manager, owner Mike Ashley struggling to sell the club and star players leaving. At least the team hit back from a goal down to draw 1-1 at West Bromwich Albion in its first game of the League Championships season on Saturday.
But Shearer, who was appointed temporary manager near the end of last season but couldn't prevent Newcastle going down, said he remained keen to get the job full time.
"I could be the manager if someone comes in, buys the club and wants me as manager," the former England captain and Newcastle striker said on Saturday on the opening day of the League Championship season.
"If they want to get the club back up to the Premier League I'd dearly love the chance to finish what I started last season, which was very disappointing."
Kinnear was manager last season until health problems forced him to stand down six months ago. He said on Wednesday that he had been offered a new two-year contract but would be unable to start work until October because he was still recuperating from heart surgery.
Shearer, who scored more than 200 goals for the Magpies, is clearly the fans' favored choice. But he is reluctant to offer his services while there is no sign that Ashley has found a buyer for a club which has not won the league title since 1927 or the FA Cup since 1955.
"As far as I'm aware the club's up for sale, they haven't got a buyer," Shearer told the BBC from the Hawthorns.
"My last conversation with (owner) Mike Ashley was on the Tuesday after we'd been relegated. I told him the players I wanted to keep, the players I thought had to be moved on, and the players I wanted to bring in.
"He said he wasn't going to put any more money into the club, and that is it as far as I'm aware." After the departures of strikers Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins among several stars leaving St. James Park, Shearer didn't see much hope for the squad that remained.
"Newcastle's squad was thin last season, and when you consider the players who have gone out, that tells a story," he said. "They need players quickly and it could be a long, hard season if that doesn't happen."
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