Newcastle United signed Alan Shearer for a record-breaking fee 29 years ago and it’s difficult to believe but Kevin Keegan had a concern upon doing so.
Alan Shearer signed for Newcastle United for a world transfer record fee of £15m on July 30 1996, returning to his native North East from Blackburn Rovers.
Newcastle signed Shearer ahead of Manchester United, a small measure of revenge for their dramatic Premier League title capitulation to Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.
Shearer would become a legend at Newcastle over the next decade, eventually beating Jackie Milburn’s record to become the club’s top scorer of all time.
However, Kevin Keegan – who was an icon of Shearer’s growing up – was initially concerned that signing Shearer would disrupt his great Entertainers side.
Kevin Keegan was concerned Alan Shearer’s arrival would annoy players
Shearer’s arrival came at the peak of the Entertainers and was seen as the missing piece to finally get Newcastle over the line and clinch the title.
There was much celebration surrounding the signing, with Les Ferdinand and Peter Beardsley both buzzing about it, but Keegan did have a big concern over his arrival upsetting the players already there.
Unsurprisingly, given the team’s moniker, Newcastle were already jam-packed with talented forwards before Shearer was signed.
Ferdinand and Beardsley were joined by Tino Asprilla, David Ginola, Rob Lee and Keith Gillespie, which is a lot of forward options in the days of 4-4-2.
Speaking in a press conference when Shearer was announced, Keegan expressed how it would not be easy to keep everyone happy after signing another quality striker.
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.”
As it turns out, he had little to worry about.
Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer enjoyed a sensational season together
Keegan may have been worried about upsetting his star forward, especially given Ferdinand scored 29 goals the previous season, but it turned out his worries were unfounded.
Shearer took Ferdinand’s No.9, with the latter letting him have the number and taking No.10, and the pair then struck up a frightening strike partnership.
They blew most teams away and bagged 49 goals between them, though Newcastle came second to Man Utd once more.
Shearer finished the season as top scorer with 28, while Ferdinand chipped in with a fantastic 21. 10 of those goals came from the duo setting the other up.
Unfortunately, Keegan didn’t see out all of the season as he resigned from the job on January 8, 1997.
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