'Needs to be sorted': Alan Shearer weighs in on what he believes is the big issue at Newcastle

As our resident wordsmith, Rich said at the start of his Good, Bad, and Average piece on Saturday, something is rotten in the state of Northumbria as Newcastle United have looked like a shadow of their former selves.

On and off the pitch, things just don't seem to be clicking yet after a pretty intense summer which saw a lot of changes at boardroom level and not enough changes at player level.

The constant narrative of a 'civil war' within the club, specifically between Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell, certainly isn't helping, and while there's no smoke without fire, this roaring blaze that's being made out in the media is probably no more than someone burning their toast.

However, the more the media pushes the narrative, the more it's going to continue to affect what is going on at the club.

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Alan Shearer is fanning the flames of the 'civil war' narrative

Toon legend Alan Shearer isn't exactly helping matters as he's bringing it back into focus on The Rest Is Football podcast which has allowed the Daily Mail to run with their 'civil war' angle again.

Shearer has spoken about how the off-field issues will be affecting the team's performances.

"We’ve said it before about the sporting director and Eddie. Unless that gets sorted out somehow, it will affect performances on the pitch... it always does. Whatever happens off the pitch in terms of the boardroom or whatever, it eventually comes down and that needs to be sorted out."

The Premier League's rules are a much bigger problem

As one of our readers pointed out in our comments the other day, Alan Shearer has been quick to point the fingers internally, but the Premier League employee hasn't really mentioned the restrictions that have been hastily put in place to prevent Newcastle's progress in the wake of the takeover.

There may well be issues behind the scenes, but we've every confidence that they're just teething problems. The real problem is Profit and Sustainability Rules and restrictions on Associated Party Transactions.

Once they are removed or at least rejigged to be less restrictive towards clubs that have the means to spend, then Newcastle are going to continue to find it hard to close that gap to the "Big Six".