(Jonathan Howcroft is an Englishman, freelance writer, Manchester United supporter, BPL Citizen Journalist and recent resident of Melbourne.)

The soap opera that developed this week around James Hird's possible ascension to the coach's box at Windy Hill feels eerily similar to another story of a recently retired champion threatening, but taking a long time before committing, to leading his former club. 

The player was Alan Shearer, the club Newcastle United, and the result - disastrous. 

Shearer was a hero in Newcastle from the moment he signed for his hometown club in 1996, for a then world-record fee of 15 million pounds. The unprecedented hysteria caused by his arrival can be illustrated by the 1400 invited guests attending his public unveiling - and another 15,000 uninvited guests locked in the car park chanting his name. 

Shearer played with distinction for the Magpies, scoring over 200 goals in over 400 games for the club. Unfortunately though, Shearer's presence failed to bring any silverware to St James Park. 

From quite early in his Newcastle career it became obvious the perfect alignment of local heritage, freakish talent and massive ego spelt disaster for Shearer's relationships with his managers. Coaches of the footballing stature of Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit and Graeme Souness were unable to compete with this adulation and any hints of dressing-room unrest or, heaven forbid, Shearer being dropped were met with fierce criticism from the terraces. 

This spilled into Shearer's retirement in 2006, when he very publicly declared that he was to take a break from the game and not try and usurp Glenn Roeder, the young, faltering coach - a coach who, as a player, was very much Shearer's inferior. Instead, Shearer perfected the role of Banquo's Ghost from the couch of the BBC's Match of the Day studio. Sound familiar?In less than three years, from 2006-09, Newcastle employed five managers. At the intersection of each Shearer became the bookies favourite to take the job. On each occasion he would politely decline to put himself forward for the job (via his TV punditry, of course) and in doing so, casually suggest that it would be his dream to one day coach the hometown club he led with such distinction as a player. 

Shearer's presence in the wings was unsettling during this three-year period. The will-he, won't-he debate, fuelled by passionate local supporters but never quashed by the media celebrity guaranteed the failure of successive coaches, unable to obtain unequivocal backing from fans until their Messiah had been given his chance.

Shearer finally played his hand towards the end of the 2008-09 season. With Newcastle struggling and their manager, Joe Kinnear, recuperating from heart surgery, Shearer stepped in to guide the club through the final quarter of the campaign. The result? 5 points out of a possible 24, relegation and ignominy. 

Like Hird, Shearer had no coaching background to speak of. Like Hird, Shearer had a lucrative career outside football for a number of years before returning to coach. 

It feels as though Essendon, like Newcastle, need Hird to throw his hat in the ring, if for no other reason than to end further years of unhelpful speculation. But Bombers fans should be under no illusions of former greatness being a guarantee of future success.