I rejected Manchester United twice in five years – I can’t stand them now

Manchester United and Newcastle have a strange rivalry centred around the biggest transfer snub of the formative Premier League years.

For a Manchester United fan, the response to Alan Shearer’s tweet was absolutely delicious. A quote from famous TV gameshow Bullseye saying, “Look at what you would have won,” next to an image of Sir Alex Ferguson proudly parading the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies.

There’s little wonder it’s still a raw subject for Shearer, who still gets asked about it to this day.

“NEVER! I couldn’t stand them then and I can’t stand them now!!!” That was his tweet on the subject of regrets in his career, and whether snubbing United (twice) still rankled.

His first opportunity to make the Old Trafford move came in 1992, with Shearer choosing Blackburn and United choosing Eric Cantona. The latter would swiftly help United win successive league titles and the FA Cup.

But it was in 1996, when football (nearly) came home, that Ferguson would make his biggest play for the striker everybody wanted. Think Harry Kane or Erling Haaland now, Shearer was of that ilk. He would have taken Fergie’s United to the next level.

“I’d actually done a deal as far as Alan Shearer’s contract was concerned, we’d come to a settlement,” said former United chairman Martin Edwards. “Shearer had been to Ferguson’s house, spoke to him and assured him he wanted to come. The problem, I think, was with the chairman of Blackburn, Jack Walker, who was not a great fan of Manchester United, local rivals, both Lancashire clubs.

“He did not want Alan Shearer to come to Manchester United. Shearer was quite close to Walker, who was like a father figure to him, and I don’t think Alan wanted to upset him by coming to United. And I’m not sure Jack would have let him come anyway, whereas he was happy for Alan to go to Newcastle, I don’t think that was a threat to him.”

Everyone knows the next bit. And the public perception wasn’t that Blackburn had snatched Shearer from under the nose of United, it was viewed as a snub from Shearer. In reality, it was both.

The fact he chose Newcastle, with whom he would become a club legend but win nothing, was the part that made United fans laugh. And, so the song goes, they signed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer instead.

In more than a decade at the club after joining in the summer of 1996, Solskjaer won six league titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League in 1999, when his famous toe-poke secured the treble in dramatic style. That year, Newcastle finished 13th in the Premier League and United comfortably saw them off in the FA Cup final, 2-0 victors.

“Of course, I was tempted to join Manchester United, but I do not regret either decision,” Shearer insisted recently. “I had a magical time at Blackburn, winning the league. And I completed my own dream of playing for my home town club of Newcastle. I have memories I will hold forever and a goalscoring record that makes me extremely proud.”

Ferguson, who was initially incensed that Shearer wasn’t convinced to come to Old Trafford — despite giving him assurances that he could have the No.9 shirt (but that he wouldn’t be taking penalties, given Cantona’s 100 per cent record from the spot) — didn’t lose much sleep over it, in the end.

“I thought that if they were the only things worrying him, we would get our man,” he said. “History will prove whether he was right to pick Newcastle ahead of us.”

Only Shearer knows, deep down, whether he is truly at peace with his decision. United certainly didn’t have many regrets in that period of history, but they weren’t used to being snubbed.

So when you hear ‘Cheer up Alan Shearer’, to the tune of ‘Daydream Believer’ by the Monkees, or the famous Solskjaer song ring around Old Trafford, just remember this saga and that Ferguson quote in particular. United fans have enjoyed goading Shearer for the best part of two decades. That isn’t going to change soon.