He is seen as the man for the future, although he has shown little appetite to return to the fray just yet and in any case, has not yet collected his UEFA A Licence, let alone the Pro Licence.
Both Freddy Shepherd and Glenn Roeder said at one point the GOALden Boy would be the next Toon boss, but I don't think either expected the job to be up for grabs six months later.
The bookies haven't even got Shearer on their list of possible candidates, so you can rule him out. And the ex-player said last week he had a four year contract with the BBC that he would honour.
The names of Mark Hughes, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren (God forbid) and Sevilla's Juande Ramos among others have been thrown into the pot by the rumour machine with varying degrees of plausibility.
If United did take Allardyce, however, it would leave Newcastle with a sizeable compensation bill to pay with more than two years of his Bolton contract still to run. He walked out, granted, but Bolton would get a pay-off if he returns to management.
LATEST BETTING
1.170 S Allardyce
10.000 G Hiddink
14.000 S Bruce
16.000 M O Neill
20.000 Mark Hughes
20.000 Sven Goran Eriksson
20.000 M Lippi
20.000 L Scolari
22.000 D Moyes
25.000 J Mourinho
34.000 Bryan Robson
34.000 K Keegan
34.000 S McLaren
34.000 C Ranieri
40.000 T Venables
40.000 G Hoddle
50.000 G Houllier
50.000 M Jol
50.000 D O Leary