ALAN SHEARER last night kicked off Newcastle’s new Premier League battle with Sunderland — by asking Roy Keane to pay EIGHT TIMES too much for his house!
In an explosive rant which lifts the lid on the astonishing bust-ups that shaped his career, Shearer wasted no time in having a sly dig at former sparring partner Keane.
With the Mackems back in the top flight under the inspirational Irishman, big things are expected of Sunderland next term.
But St James’ Park legend Shearer has already landed the first blow by trying to stitch up Keano.
He said: “I put one of my houses up for sale for £750,000. He came to look at it and it went up to £6million when I found out it was him.”
Toon hero Shearer added: “I don’t know him personally but I have got a tremendous amount of respect for him as a player on the football pitch.
“He was one of those players where if we had 11 Roy Keanes on the pitch in our team, we would have gone on to be very successful.
“But I never spent any time with him one on one.”
Shearer was supposed to follow Keane into management after hanging up his boots last summer. But the attraction of forging a career in the media was too good to turn down.
That has not stopped him from getting all his coaching badges — and he insists there is only one job he will take.
Shearer, 36, said: “I finished my A badge two months ago so I could go into management now if I wanted to. But why should I?
“There is only one place I am going to go when I do it, so I just wanted to enjoy some time out.
“But I will do it one day. If I get to 50 or 55 and look back and I haven’t done it, then I will regret it.”
Shearer reckons Bobby Robson saved his career — but could not help but stick the boot in on three more former Toon bosses Graeme Souness, Ruud Gullit and Kenny Dalglish.
He said: “Bobby Robson was fantastic. He pulled the club up. It was on its way down before he came.
“We would have been relegated if he hadn’t come in. He saved my career.
“Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn was brilliant for us. He won the Double at Liverpool and the title at Blackburn.
“Then he came here and it was a case of the right man at the wrong time.
“Taking over from Keegan was never ever going to be easy, with everything going on at the plc at the time.
“It was very difficult and he did sign some poor players.”
On Souey’s troubled reign, he admitted: “Graeme Souness I actually liked.
“What Graeme found difficult was he was a man’s man and if you were poor, he would tell you.
“But the way players are today, they don’t appreciate it and they wanted arms around them. That was the problem — players got the hump.”
Shearer hit a club-record 206 goals in 10 years with the Toon. But Gullit’s decision to drop him for a North-East derby with Sunderland back in 1999 was the final nail in the Dutch legend’s coffin.
The former England striker added: “I always get the brunt of this but he came in and disregarded Rob Lee, Stuart Pearce, Nikos Dabizas, John Barnes and players like that.
“He couldn’t do it to me because of the position I had and the goals I had scored.
“He took the captaincy away from Rob Lee, from my best pal.
“I couldn’t turn it down. Rob said to me, ‘You deserve it, you do it’. But it was the way things were done against Sunderland I didn’t like.
“We were doing set-pieces in the morning and I realised, ‘I’m not involved. I might have a problem’.
“We got to the ground for Sunderland, the biggest game of the season. I looked up and there’s the team ... and my name was not on it.
“He could have pulled me to one side but he hadn’t. I wasn’t playing and myself and Duncan Ferguson were both on the bench.
“Next day, I decided I was going to confront him.
“I got there, burst through the door and there’s Big Dunc sat there.
“He had already torn the strips off him — but the day after, he was gone.
“I actually thought Gullit was a good coach. His sessions were very good and made a lot of sense — but the man-management was very poor.”
Shearer embarrassed countless defenders during his illustrious playing career. But he was very red-faced last summer when one of his daughters caught him on her mobile phone singing a U2 number.
He said: “We were driving through Ponteland and we had both had a good day.
“We put a particular song on and I was singing away and little did I know, she was taping me on a phone.
“We got to the World Cup last year and I got a call in my hotel room saying, ‘There’s something coming out which you might not appreciate’.
“I just sank. I was relieved when they told me it was only me singing in the car. I didn’t know what it was.
“I tried to stop it but in the end I said, ‘Just play it’ because I was so relieved.
“It was a lesson to her and my other daughter that you can’t just throw things like that around.”
In an explosive rant which lifts the lid on the astonishing bust-ups that shaped his career, Shearer wasted no time in having a sly dig at former sparring partner Keane.
With the Mackems back in the top flight under the inspirational Irishman, big things are expected of Sunderland next term.
But St James’ Park legend Shearer has already landed the first blow by trying to stitch up Keano.
He said: “I put one of my houses up for sale for £750,000. He came to look at it and it went up to £6million when I found out it was him.”
Toon hero Shearer added: “I don’t know him personally but I have got a tremendous amount of respect for him as a player on the football pitch.
“He was one of those players where if we had 11 Roy Keanes on the pitch in our team, we would have gone on to be very successful.
“But I never spent any time with him one on one.”
Shearer was supposed to follow Keane into management after hanging up his boots last summer. But the attraction of forging a career in the media was too good to turn down.
That has not stopped him from getting all his coaching badges — and he insists there is only one job he will take.
Shearer, 36, said: “I finished my A badge two months ago so I could go into management now if I wanted to. But why should I?
“There is only one place I am going to go when I do it, so I just wanted to enjoy some time out.
“But I will do it one day. If I get to 50 or 55 and look back and I haven’t done it, then I will regret it.”
Shearer reckons Bobby Robson saved his career — but could not help but stick the boot in on three more former Toon bosses Graeme Souness, Ruud Gullit and Kenny Dalglish.
He said: “Bobby Robson was fantastic. He pulled the club up. It was on its way down before he came.
“We would have been relegated if he hadn’t come in. He saved my career.
“Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn was brilliant for us. He won the Double at Liverpool and the title at Blackburn.
“Then he came here and it was a case of the right man at the wrong time.
“Taking over from Keegan was never ever going to be easy, with everything going on at the plc at the time.
“It was very difficult and he did sign some poor players.”
On Souey’s troubled reign, he admitted: “Graeme Souness I actually liked.
“What Graeme found difficult was he was a man’s man and if you were poor, he would tell you.
“But the way players are today, they don’t appreciate it and they wanted arms around them. That was the problem — players got the hump.”
Shearer hit a club-record 206 goals in 10 years with the Toon. But Gullit’s decision to drop him for a North-East derby with Sunderland back in 1999 was the final nail in the Dutch legend’s coffin.
The former England striker added: “I always get the brunt of this but he came in and disregarded Rob Lee, Stuart Pearce, Nikos Dabizas, John Barnes and players like that.
“He couldn’t do it to me because of the position I had and the goals I had scored.
“He took the captaincy away from Rob Lee, from my best pal.
“I couldn’t turn it down. Rob said to me, ‘You deserve it, you do it’. But it was the way things were done against Sunderland I didn’t like.
“We were doing set-pieces in the morning and I realised, ‘I’m not involved. I might have a problem’.
“We got to the ground for Sunderland, the biggest game of the season. I looked up and there’s the team ... and my name was not on it.
“He could have pulled me to one side but he hadn’t. I wasn’t playing and myself and Duncan Ferguson were both on the bench.
“Next day, I decided I was going to confront him.
“I got there, burst through the door and there’s Big Dunc sat there.
“He had already torn the strips off him — but the day after, he was gone.
“I actually thought Gullit was a good coach. His sessions were very good and made a lot of sense — but the man-management was very poor.”
Shearer embarrassed countless defenders during his illustrious playing career. But he was very red-faced last summer when one of his daughters caught him on her mobile phone singing a U2 number.
He said: “We were driving through Ponteland and we had both had a good day.
“We put a particular song on and I was singing away and little did I know, she was taping me on a phone.
“We got to the World Cup last year and I got a call in my hotel room saying, ‘There’s something coming out which you might not appreciate’.
“I just sank. I was relieved when they told me it was only me singing in the car. I didn’t know what it was.
“I tried to stop it but in the end I said, ‘Just play it’ because I was so relieved.
“It was a lesson to her and my other daughter that you can’t just throw things like that around.”