Alan Shearer's potential move to Manchester United was so close he even chose a house – before rejecting them to join Newcastle.
The Premier League's record goalscorer was coming off the 1995/96 season where he claimed the Golden Boot for a second season in a row for Blackburn, before scoring five goals for England in Euro 1996. Interest in the Englishman was at an all-time high as champions Manchester United appeared to be favourites for Shearer's signature.
Despite winning the league, Sir Alex Ferguson was in the market for a clinical striker and Shearer fitted the bill as he admitted he came close to joining the Scot in Manchester. "Manchester United was the probable move," he said in an interview with FourFourTwo. "My wife and I had even picked out a house."
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However, a meeting with Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan before chatting to Ferguson on the same day swayed Shearer to finally turn out for his boyhood club. He added: "Fergie came in and the first thing he said was, 'Am I first or has Keegan got to you?' I told him I had already spoken with Keegan and he said, 'That's me f***ed then.'
"He was wrong. I still felt I was going to Old Trafford. Then I got another call from Kevin asking to see me one more time. I thought 'why not?' because it was lingering there, this idea that it would be a dream to play for my club, for Newcastle. I went to meet Keegan again, I looked at my missus and said, 'It's time to go back home.'"
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Shearer joined Newcastle for a then-world record fee of £15million and spent 10 years at the club, where he scored 206 goals in 405 games. Despite failing to win a single piece of silverware, the 53-year-old insisted that he made the right decision joining the team he supported as a child, rather than the all-conquering United side who went on to lift the Treble.
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"I wanted to have some great years at Newcastle whilst I could still play, not to go back in my 30s and for them not to see the best of me," he continued. "It was always my dream to play for Newcastle, to have that shirt and wear that with pride and score goals at St James’ Park, and it was the best decision I ever made."
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