Player Profile: Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer won pretty much every individual honour going, including PFA Players Player of the Year twice, in 1995 and ‘97, Writers Association Player of the Year in ‘94 and he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2004. In his role as manager of Newcastle United he has been less successful though.

Appointed with eight games of the season left to play, local boy Shearer failed to save Newcastle from their impending doom. Despite this though he has an impenetrable reputation with the Toon Army, and with good reason.

A traditional English centre forward with a sometimes bull-in-a-china-shop approach to playing, Shearer’s main interest was in scoring goals and his combative style led to an unprecedented individual of achievement, but team honours proved harder to come by.

Seemingly though his greatest honour was playing for his beloved hometown club Newcastle, as he explained to The Independent “my dream as a kid was to play for Newcastle United and to score goals at St James’ Park. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t win a trophy because I did it my way and I lived the dream. Unless you come from the area, you wouldn’t understand that mentality.”

Announcing his arrival as a professional footballer with a hat-trick on his full debut for Southampton in a 4-2 win over Arsenal at the age of 17, it wasn’t long before he attracted the attentions of former England manager Graham Taylor, who handed him the first of his 63 caps in 1992 against France and he again scored on his debut.

In the same year Blackburn snapped him up thanks to considerable investment from Sir Jack Walker, for a then British transfer record fee of £3.3 million, despite rumoured interest from Manchester United. Never one to disappoint Shearer repeated his debut party trick and scored a hat-trick on his first appearance as a Rover.

Whilst at Ewood Park he earned his first and only club honour as he helped Blackburn to the Premier League title in 1994/95, having finished as a runner-up the season before. Second place finishes were the best he could hope for after that though, as he would again finish as a runner-up in the race for the league title in ‘96/’97 with Newcastle and twice finish on the losing side in the FA Cup final in ‘98 and ‘99, again with Newcastle.

Individual honours though were in plentiful supply and after picking up the Golden Boot at Euro 96 with six goals and scoring a highly impressive 112 times in 138 league appearances for Blackburn, he moved to his hometown club Newcastle in 1996 for another British transfer record fee of £15 million. Again Sir Alex Ferguson was rumoured to be interested in signing him, before Shearer’s boyhood hero and then Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan swept him off to St James Park.

More than just a cult hero on Tyneside or a fondly remembered player, Shearer became a saint amongst men in the eyes of the Toon Army, who reacted angrily when he was controversially dropped by the preacher of sexy football and former manager Ruud Gullit, who later resigned telling The Independent “I told him to his face, ‘You are the most overrated player I have ever seen’,” the Dutchman recalled. “He didn’t reply.”

After contemplating retirement at the end of the 2003/04, Shearer was persuaded to stay on for another two seasons by former gaffer Graeme Souness. A knee injury sustained against Sunderland in April 2006 eventually forced him to retire, but not before he broke Jackie Milburn’s long standing goal scoring record at Newcastle of 200 club goals.

Rejecting an offer as a coach with Steve McClaren as part of the England set-up, he instead elected to settle down on the Match of the Day sofa with Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen and he seemed comfortable in his new role as a television personality, before his last minute rescue attempt to save his beloved Newcastle from relegation. Unfortunately for him the problems at the club could not be prevented in just eight games and they were relegated.

Awarded an OBE for services to football in 2001, Shearer will best be remembered during his playing days for his love of scoring goals and of course that distinctive knees-to-chest arm-in-the-air celebration. His managerial epitaph though has yet to be written.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Monday June 1, 2009.
Tags: Alan Shearer, Newcastle United