Ruud Gullit talks about the battle with Alan Shearer that eventually cost him his job at Newcastle

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Ruud Gullit’s brief stint as Newcastle United boss was packed with incidents but it was ultimately his decision to drop Alan Shearer for the game against Sunderland which the Magpies ultimately lost, that sealed his fate.

On Sunday Ruud Gullit was in the BeIN Sport studio with Andy Gray and Richard Keys to cover the Newcastle v Wolves game and at full time, Keys pushed Gullit to talk about his relationship with Alan Shearer during his time at Newcastle.

Was it a mistake to take on Alan Shearer?

Keys asked the Dutchman, “Do you think it was a mistake to take on Alan Shearer?” given that it was ultimately dropping the Newcastle captain for the derby that was the straw that broke the camel’s back causing Gullit to walk away from St James’ Park after just one year and a day in charge.

“Before I came there was already rumours that I didn’t want to play with Shearer and Shearer was upset about it,” said Gullit.

“I didn’t even speak with him about it. I had a feeling that we didn’t get along just because of these rumours, not because I didn’t want him.

“The thing is, I needed to play a certain football that was associated with Chelsea. We wanted to play the same kind of European style of Chelsea. Therefore I wanted a little bit more of Alan. I asked him that because he was the best player.”

Gullit went to great pains to make his stance clear that he had no issue with Shearer but there was a clash of philosophies that couldn’t be resolved. He realised that in a battle for superiority at Newcastle, he could never win against the club’s world-record signing.

“I could not win that battle because Alan was the most important player at Newcastle and he wanted to play the way he wanted,” Gullit continued. “So I went to Freddy Shepherd and I said I can not win that battle, so therefore I think it’s better to separate.

Gullit and Shearer have since buried the hatchet

“But the funny thing was, after that Alan and I became friends, because I understood him.

“The thing is that, he was a great striker, I just wanted some details a little bit less but people from the outside were “oh he doesn’t want him to play” – I wanted him to play but he was like “ah I don’t know” things like that.”

It wasn’t just the the row with Shearer that turned the Toon Army against Gullit, though. Despite the former Chelsea man guiding Newcastle to an FA Cup final in his first year in charge, league results weren’t great. Add to that the fact that he didn’t give fan-favourite Rob Lee a squad number didn’t go over well with the fans at all.

Following Sir Bobby Robson was always going to be a tough ask, but throwing his weight around the way Gullit did certainly wasn’t going to help endear him to the Geordie faithful.