The Premier League has not been a happy hunting ground this season for north-east clubs or for young, inexperienced managers. Now, at Newcastle, the two have been combined by the recruitment of Alan Shearer in a desperate attempt to stave off relegation.
Newcastle, along with neighbours Middlesbrough, are in the bottom three with eight games to play and Sunderland are just three points clear of the relegation zone in 14th place.
Boro and Sunderland started the season under managers in their first job - Gareth Southgate and Roy Keane respectively. Boro chairman Steve Gibson has kept faith with Southgate, while Sunderland responded to Keane's departure in December by appointing another first-timer, Ricky Sbragia.
With Blackburn and Portsmouth also among the strugglers, having tried and discarded inexperienced managers Paul Ince and Tony Adams, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the Premier League is a place for wise old heads.
Yet in other European countries, young managers are highly valued and often highly successful. Pep Guardiola had been only a reserve-team coach at Barcelona before taking the top job this season with spectacular results, and he was preceded by another young appointee in Frank Rijkaard.
Germany, and now Bayern Munich, have been given exciting impetus by Jurgen Klinsmann, while six of the eight managers of the Champions League quarter-finalists were appointed before their mid-forties and/or are in at least their fifth year at the club, which emphasises that youthful appointments and team-building often go hand in hand.
In that vein, even though at this stage it is only for the rest of the season, Shearer's appointment should be welcomed as a progressive step by a club that too often has fallen back on a so-called safe pair of hands but whose best period in the Premier League era came when they gave Kevin Keegan his first managerial job.