Alan Shearer: "I thought I had the job at Newcastle.
"We had got relegated and I had sat down with the appropriate guys and we had agreed everything. Then two days later...
"I have not spoken to them since. I rang someone up and he didn't know what was going on, and I never got a phone call after that.
"I absolutely loved my time at Newcastle, despite what happened.
"I have never, ever worked so hard in my life and my kids have never seen so little of me, but I loved the challenges that it brought and yes, if the right job came along, then I would seriously look at it.
"You have got to look at the guy and think, 'Hang on a minute, he (Mike Ashley) has put a hell of a lot of money into Newcastle United, so he is entitled to do what he wants to do'.
"If you are spending £150million, £200million, £250million on something, then you are going to want to call the shots and he is doing that.
"You can't say anything against him for that, but I don't know what his plans are.
"I don't know whether he wants to spend any more money, I don't know if he wants to take the club further or what.
"But if he wants to, money has to be spent and whether he is going to do that or not, I don't know. I probably don't think so.
"Chris Hughton has done a magnificent job. He is a really, really nice guy and was a big help to me when I went in there.
"I have got to be honest, I didn't think Newcastle would come back up at the first attempt with the team they had.
"They had some very good players in there, but the vast majority were the players who took them down, and you have got to give Chris tremendous credit for that.
"He steadied the ship and without doubt, he deserves a crack at the big league now."