Cost of drop least of Shearer’s concerns

ALAN SHEARER is not even considering the financial cost of relegation from the Barclays Premier League as he attempts to drag Newcastle back from the brink of disaster.

The 38-year-old, who answered his hometown club’s SOS call with just eight games of a traumatic season remaining, will send his team out at Aston Villa tomorrow praying they can get a better result than Hull do at home to Manchester United to save themselves.

The alternative is simply unthinkable: varying estimates suggest the cost of going down to be anywhere from £35million (€40m) to £65m (€73.6m) which will do untold damage to the value of a business in which owner Mike Ashley has invested a total of around £250m (€283m) in his two years at the helm.