Alan Shearer reveals X-rated blast from Sir Alex Ferguson in infamous transfer meeting

Alan Shearer held talks with Sir Alex Ferguson over a potential move to Manchester United in 1996, but the striker ended up signing for boyhood club Newcastle instead

Alan Shearer has opened up about his talks with Sir Alex Ferguson over a potential move to Manchester United, sharing the first thing the legendary manager told him.

Ferguson attempted to sign Shearer multiple times during his career, most notably in 1996 when United and Newcastle battled it out for his signature. Shearer met with both Ferguson and Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan before making a decision on his future, with the striker ultimately deciding to join his boyhood club.

“I got the call from Manchester United,” Shearer told TNT Sports. “It was really strange because I was meeting Kevin Keegan and Sir Alex on the same day in the same house, and I met Kevin in the morning and Sir Alex in the afternoon.

“It was actually David Platt’s mother-in-law’s house. We’d sort of taken over the house because we wanted it all done in secret. I remember Sir Alex coming in the afternoon after the talks going really well in the morning with Kevin, and his first words to me were, ‘Am I seeing you first or have you seen Kevin this morning?’

“And I went, ‘I spoke to Kevin this morning’, and he goes, excuse my language, he went, ‘That’s me f*****!’ Those were his first words to me. But anyway, talks went really, really well, and I thought at one stage I was going to go, and I even went house hunting around Manchester for a day.

“I got another call off Kevin a few days later saying, ‘Can I have another half an hour with you?’ And I had half an hour with him, and I just thought, ‘What am I waiting for? I’ve gotta go back home’. And that was it.

“I rang the missus up because the meeting again with Kevin was in Manchester and I said ‘There’s going to be a taxi come in half an hour, and you’ve got to pack me a bag and put it in the taxi and send it to Manchester Airport’. I went and I signed for Newcastle.”

Shearer went on to spend the rest of his career at Newcastle, retiring from football in 2006 as the Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer. Although Shearer never won a major trophy with Newcastle, he insists he does not regret picking them over United.

“I know that I’ve missed out on a lot of trophies with Man Utd,” he admitted. “I’d have won so many more trophies. I know that. But I wouldn’t have… I’m not sure I would have had that feeling that I get playing for Newcastle for 10 years.

“I was lucky enough to break my dad’s hero’s record, Jackie Milburn’s. To have 10 years, to have a testimonial, to have a statue, to have the goal scoring record. And to live my dream, I lived my dream.”

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