"Blackburn was my only option"

Watched one of those Sky progs where they showed all his goals one after the other. He was sensational. You always think of him bullying defenders and scoring through sheer physical force, but actually he had everything. The goals he scored from ouside the box were awesome, and quick feet in the box too. A complete striker.

comment by Kamikaze Blue (U7450)
posted 12 minutes ago
Watched one of those Sky progs where they showed all his goals one after the other. He was sensational. You always think of him bullying defenders and scoring through sheer physical force, but actually he had everything. The goals he scored from ouside the box were awesome, and quick feet in the box too. A complete striker.
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Yeah, genuinely top quality striker. Reminded me of batistuta a bit in terms of style, perhaps a bit more all action.

TBF had we got Shearer we probably would have never got Cantona so who knows how we would have done? I'm pretty happy how the next couple decades went after that.

Also the Shearer that Blackburn bought from Saints was a very very good talent but it was at Blackburn and then Newcastle where he became the player most people know now. He probably would have done brilliantly under Ferguson but it wasn't so obvious he would turn into the player he did when at Saints.

I thought it was when he went to Newcastle was when you tried, not Blackburn.

We missed out on a few big names over that era but I don't regret not signing any of them.

Had we bought Shearer from Saints we might not have ended up with Cantona. Had we bought him from Blackburn we probably wouldn't have ended up with at least one of Ole/Yorke, both instrumental in our greatest ever season. Might not have gone for Ruud later on either.

The likes of Shearer, Batistuta, Ronaldinho- you look back and think it might have been a blessing in disguise. It's the players we missed during Fergie's later years, Hazard for example, that I really regret.

comment by CurrentlyInChina (U11181)
posted 3 hours, 37 minutes ago
What did he say to the representative on the phone?
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"Hopefully, I'll be able to milk this call in 25 years' time."

Under the Bridge

There were rumours of a move to United but I also seem to recall Jack Walker putting a stop to it.

Not sure what the references to not getting Cantona are about.

Rose tinted stuff.

For any number of reasons.

Shearer was:

a centre forward, Cantona wasn't,
a more valuable asset to a team
a better and more valuable asset to a team for longer

May have effected the later acquisitions such as Ole or Andrew. But missing out on Shearer being a plus vis-a-vis getting Cantona, errant nonsense.

If United had bought him before Blackburn - as was mooted at the time - united would have had at least one more league title on the books

Shearer was a baller but also a huge thundercunt, never, and still don't liked him, it's all "ifs and buts" 👍

I made an article a couple of years back after watching a Shearer “what a player” type program on Sky. What a player. He had everything.

I agree with the theory that it worked out OK anyway but imagine Big Al on the end of numerous Beckham crosses...... would have scored 40+ per season.

We would have been a better team with him, as he was easily the best CF in England. The main issue would have been Roy Keane, and how the two worked together.