Alan Shearer has been asked to build his perfect Premier League striker and paid a glowing reference to former Newcastle United teammate Les Ferdinand in doing so.
Shearer is one of the most iconic figures in Premier League history.
A title winner with Blackburn in 1995 before cementing himself as the greatest goalscorer in the division’s history with Newcastle United, the former England captain is well-placed to comment.
The 55-year-old scored a stunning 260 goals in 441 Premier League appearances, 148 of which came after his stunning move to St James’ Park in 1996.
He was asked to select a number of attributes from other Premier League greats to build the ideal forward and spoke of just how impressed he was by Ferdinand.
Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand celebrate after a goal between Newcastle United and Manchester United.
Photo by Ben Radford/Allsport UK/Getty Images
Les Ferdinand still blows Alan Shearer away
Shearer and Ferdinand played together for only one season on Tyneside. It was a deadly duo, one that yielded ten goals in 35 appearances.
Indeed, Shearer admits he still hasn’t seen anyone quite as good in the air as his former strike partner.
When asked to choose who’s heading ability he’d give his perfect Premier League striker, Shearer told SPORTBIBLE: “Thinking to put myself in here but I won’t.
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“I’ll put Sir Les Ferdinand in there. I’ve never seen anyone with a leap as good as Les.”
Kevin Keegan was worried about Les Ferdinand after signing Alan Shearer
It’s perhaps not all that surprising that pairing two elite forwards together worked well for Newcastle, even if their partnership was ended far too early when Ferdinand was sold to Tottenham in 1997.
Still, former Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan took a risk. Spending a world record fee on Shearer risked upsetting the apple cart on Tyneside.
Ferdinand, David Ginola and Peter Beardsley were the star men at the club at the time and Keegan feared Shearer’s arrival would upset the Newcastle United squad.
He said: “My hope is, and it will never be easy and there will be problems along the way, my hope is try and keep everybody happy.
“Try and keep the squad together and obviously try and get the mentality of the players a little bit more like the European, Italian style, where you have big squads like AC Milan is a very good example.
“International players accept the fact they’re not being dropped, they’re being rested.”
Clearly, that never proved to be the case. Shearer and Ferdinand struck up a fine partnership and it was a crying shame it ended so quickly.