Sir Alex Ferguson was convinced that Alan Shearer would join Manchester United, only for him to choose Newcastle instead at the last minute.
Back in 1996, Shearer was hot property in the Premier League following a deadly scoring streak of 112 goals in 138 Premier League games for Blackburn Rovers. After helping them win the title in 1994/95, Shearer was on the move in the summer of 1996, with United, Arsenal and Real Madrid among the interested clubs.
Ultimately, though, Shearer ended up joining his boyhood club Newcastle in a world-record £15million transfer. It was a dream move for the Tyneside-born striker, but it left Ferguson furious, after he thought he’d agreed a deal for his services.
Having turned down United back in 1992, when he moved from Southampton to Blackburn, Shearer held talks with the club again four years later. He and his agent Tony Stephens met Ferguson and all appeared to go well.
“He wanted to know if he would be able to take the penalty kicks and if he could wear the number nine shirt,” Ferguson wrote in In A Will to Win, his diary of the 1996/97 season.
“I tell him that Eric Cantona hasn’t missed a penalty for us since he arrived but that if he ever did, then, possibly. As for the number nine shirt, no problem. I thought that if we were the only things worrying him, we would get our man.”
Stephens was supposed to call Ferguson back three days later to inform him of Shearer’s decision, but the call never came. Shearer had spoken to Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan and was won over by his sales pitch – and the move set up an awkward meeting with United soon after in the Charity Shield at Wembley.
United won 4-0 and, after the match, Ferguson admitted that he was “‘sick and angry” about missing out on Shearer. “History will prove whether he was right to pick Newcastle ahead of us,” Ferguson wrote. “And I do feel that there’s often a sting in the tail when you sign someone for that kind of money.
“Afterwards, my players tell me that there is already muttering in the Newcastle team about some of them looking for new contracts. It’s very difficult keeping some kind of pay parity in a club, especially in these days of agents.”
Ferguson placed most of the blame on the failed move down to Blackburn owner Jack Walker, who was not keen on his most prized asset joining a rival. A move to Newcastle represented a better fit for the selling club – and, as it happens, Shearer himself, who continued to bang in goals for the Magpies.
The man himself certainly didn’t regret his choice. “At one point, I was going to Manchester United,” Shearer told the BBC years later. “But then, I sat down and I got a call from Kevin who asked to see me a day or two later. And I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to go back to Newcastle. It was the club I always supported and wanted to play for.
“I rang him but there was no answer, I thought I couldn’t leave a message. I rang him again but there was still no answer. So, I left him a message after the third time and, no surprise, I never got a call back. I’ve got no regrets, I’d do the same again.”
