Shepherd’s deception over £15m Al signing

FORMER Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd has revealed how he deceived his Manchester United counterpart in order to pip the Red Devils to Alan Shearer’s signature.

Back in 1996, following an excellent performance at the Euros in England, Shearer was courted by both Newcastle and Man United, who had just pipped the Magpies to the title the previous season.

Eventually, Shepherd would help broker a £15m world-record fee with Blackburn Rovers for the forward – but only after misleading the Red Devils chairman first.

Shepherd agreed with Man United counterpart Martin Edwards neither would bid more than £10m for the Blackburn forward, otherwise they had to notify one anotherd.

However, manager Kevin Keegan wanted Shearer, so Shepherd agreed a worldrecord deal with Blackburn owner Jack Walker.

Speaking to The Mirror, Shepherd recalled: “I said to Blackburn owner Jack Walker ‘We will up it to £15m’.

“He said ‘I’ll accept it – if it was Man U, it would be much more.’ I said ‘Two £7.5m payments’. He said ‘No, £15m up front’. I said ‘What?’ Very few pay up front’. That was a world-record fee!

“I said ‘The deal is £15m, but we need it up front’. I thought ‘Here’s the argument [coming]’. Funny enough, the bank manager said ‘No, that’s fine. Pay them up front’.

“I could have fallen on the floor – that was a fortune 20 years ago.

“When we all arrived in Thailand for pre-season, it became public. We told the Evening Chronicle reporter [Alan Oliver] ‘We’ve bought Shearer’. We let him stew, and then went back and said: ‘Only kidding you...’

“We let him panic for 10 minutes and then told him it was true!” Alan Shearer back in 1996