Newcastle United icon Alan Shearer is widely regarded as one of the greatest strikers ever, having enjoyed a highly prolific 14-year Premier League career, during which he scored 260 goals – more than any other player in history.
Shearer’s resume speaks for itself – he helped Blackburn Rovers win their first and only Premier League title to date in 1994/95 and won the division’s Golden Boot three years in a row, from 1995 to 1997.
Arguably the most iconic Newcastle player ever, Shearer once revealed he was close to leaving St James’ Park at the peak of his career, citing a former coach he ‘disliked’ as the main reason he considered moving on.
Alan Shearer ‘Disliked’ Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit
Shearer, as quoted by Sport Bible, claimed that he disliked former Newcastle head coach Ruud Gullit ‘from the first minute’ and revealed that he ‘knew’ the Dutchman wanted him out of St James’ Park:
“We disliked each other from the first minute.
“You just get a feeling, when he walked in and we were introduced to each other, 'Lovely boy' he used to call me and I thought we weren't going to get on.
“Within a week or two he dismissed the senior players, me, Rob Lee, Stuart Pearce, John Barnes, Ian Rush, Warren Barton and all those guys were put to one side.
“It was as if he didn't want any senior players challenging him. It was a difficult situation because I knew he wanted me out of the football club and I didn't want to leave.”
Shearer had been at Newcastle for two years when Gullit took charge in August 1998 and already had the reputation of being one of the Premier League’s most prolific forwards.
After a promising 1998/99 debut season together, in which Shearer scored 14 league goals and Gullit guided Newcastle to the FA Cup final, tensions between the pair soon emerged.
Shearer claims he even considered leaving Newcastle after being left on the bench for the first Tyne-Wear derby of the 1999/00 season against Sunderland, which Newcastle lost 2-1 with the relatively unknown Paul Robinson selected ahead of him.
Gullit resigned three days later following the defeat, and Shearer, as quoted by the Mirror, later admitted that had Newcastle won the derby, he might have been the one to leave St James’ Park:
“I don’t have any doubt about what would have happened if Newcastle, not Sunderland, had been victorious on August 25, 1999.
“It was all laden with symbolism: Paul, a young, promising, boyhood Sunderland fan replacing me for one of our biggest games of the season, in parochial terms at least.
“We took the lead but Sunderland won and Gullit was toast. If it had gone the other way, Gullit would have stayed and I would have left; God knows where to.
“I would not be Newcastle’s record goalscorer today and I would not have a statue, right arm raised to the sky, on Barrack Road beside the stadium.”
Shearer spent a total of 10 years at Newcastle, during which he made 405 appearances, scoring 206 goals and providing 58 assists.
The former England international netted 10 goals in the Premier League in his final professional season in 2005/06, including one in his last appearance – a 4-1 away win at Sunderland.
Gullit, meanwhile, spent almost five years out of management after departing Newcastle in August 1999, before taking charge at Dutch side Feyenoord in the summer of 2004.
The former midfielder only lasted 44 games at the Eredivisie club and later enjoyed even briefer spells with LA Galaxy and Russian side Terek Grozny, overseeing 19 and 13 games respectively.