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Exclusive: United fans hated me but I could only talk to Blackburn - by Alan Shearer Tuesday, March 24, 1998 Why on earth did you join Blackburn Rovers? The question has been put to me over and over again. The widely held view is that all my football ambitions were flung out of the window because my head had been turned by the lure of loads of money. Suddenly I had become 'that greedy bastard' or at least I was in the minds of the Manchester United fans who were convinced I had snubbed their club for a bag of cash laid in front of me by Jack Walker. I had come to the end of my fourth season at Southampton and was starting to be recognised as a goalscorer at the highest level. I had broken into the England senior side and my horizons were beginning to broaden. I knew I was not going to win the top honours with Southampton and had completed only one year of a new four-year contract when the football grapevine began buzzing that other, bigger clubs wanted to sign me. However, when I got a telephone call from manager Ian Branfoot he informed me Blackburn were the only club who had made a definite move. There was an inquiry from the French club Marseille but I ruled that out because I did not consider a move abroad a suitable option at that stage of my career. So I went to talk to Kenny Dalglish. I was not given permission to speak to Manchester United, Newcastle, Liverpool or any of the other clubs who were supposed to be keeping tabs on me. I would have been delighted to talk to them if they had made acceptable bids but, according to Southampton, Blackburn were the only ones with a suitable offer on the table - £3.3million plus David Speedie, which was a British record at the time. Lainya and I met Kenny and his wife, Marina, at the Haydock Post House off the M6. My first problem was trying to understand what Kenny had to say. Until your ears are tuned into his broad Glaswegian accent it can be extremely difficult to follow his conversation. He left no stone unturned with any of his transfer targets and insisted on investing in the right sort of characters who had enjoyed stable upbringings and had developed strong reliable personalities. It was no coincidence that Rovers' dressing room was full of honest, down-to-earth individuals who had no airs and graces. Kenny enjoyed the 'let's all muck in together' attitude which existed in the early period of Blackburn's development. There was money aplenty for new players but, at the start, the club's facilities were comparatively sparse. Before they built their magnificent new training complex it was Kenny's job to phone around the local area for a practice pitch. An essential tool of his trade was the spanner he carried around in his tracksuit pocket to bolt the portable goalposts together. No job was too small for him. But I still got sackfuls of mail when I left Southampton. Many of the letters were abusive, most of them anonymous, others were more sinister and made some vicious, nasty threats. I can recall two incidents which made me realise how much I was disliked by Manchester United fans. I wasn't fit for the Charity Shield match between Blackburn and United at Wembley but on arriving at the stadium was recognised by some Rovers fans. The chant went up: 'There's only one Alan Shearer.' This drew the attention of a group of United supporters and one aggressive, fairly large individual thrust his face towards mine and said: 'Shearer you're a ******* user and a greedy bastard.' He was immediately pounced on by a Blackburn fan who smacked him one and left him flat on his back. The same season I received another horrible reminder of the loathing which football brings out in people. A friendly between England and the Republic of Ireland at Lansdowne Road was interrupted by an outbreak of trouble in the crowd, and the players from both sides were taken off. The game was eventually abandoned but while we were waiting in the dressing room for an official announcement to be made, a small Irish lad, probably no older than eight, was brought through in some distress by first aid men. As he passed by he looked up and recognised me. 'I ******* hate you, Shearer!' he shouted. I thought he must be suffering from shock but when someone approached him and asked if he was seriously hurt he brushed them aside and said: 'No, leave me alone. I'm a Manchester United fan.' It was upsetting to see a kid work himself up into such a state just because he had seen me. soccernet |