IT’S SHEAR POWER ON PREM DAY!
THE first Premier League season kicked off on August 15, 1992.
The aim was to make the Premier League the best in the world and the new era in English football launched with Leeds as champions, Manchester United as title favourites and everyone talking about Blackburn.
Kenny Dalglish had spent millions of Sir Jack Walker’s fortune to get Blackburn into the Premier League – and obviously had ambitions beyond simply keeping them there.
On July 27, 1992 – 30 years ago on Wednesday – Blackburn smashed the British transfer record.
Alan Shearer was a striker aged 22, who had scored 43 goals for Southampton, and it took £3.6million to take him to Lancashire.
That was £700,000 more than Liverpool had paid Derby for Dean Saunders a year earlier – and too much for Manchester United.
They had also shown interest in the Saints striker, but, as Shearer recalled, they did not follow it up – and he went to Blackburn, saying he was impressed by the club’s “massive plans”.
That left Sir Alex Ferguson still needing a striker and he signed Dion Dublin for £1m from Cambridge after he had almost taken them into the Premier League and one of the summer’s other big transfers involved a striker who was credited with keeping Fergie in his job.
Mark Robins had silenced those calling for Ferguson’s head after a run of eight league games without a win by scoring the only goal at Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup tie in January 1990.
And two-and-a-half years later, it was Robins leaving Old Trafford, rather than the manager.
He went to Norwich for £800,000 and instantly started repaying the investment on the opening day of the Premier League season, netting twice as the Canaries overturned a 2-0 deficit at Highbury to beat Arsenal 4-2.
Also on the opening day, Dublin came on as a second-half sub as United were beaten at Sheffield United.
Shearer had a debut to remember. Mark Bright and Gareth Southgate had put Crystal Palace 2-1 up at Selhurst Park, but Shearer levelled the scores on 67 minutes.
He smashed a right-foot shot just under Nigel Martyn’s crossbar from 25 yards – and Shearer was on target from similar range with eight minutes left, bending a precise shot just inside the far post to put Blackburn 3-2 up.
But Rovers were denied the three points by Simon Osborn’s header in the third minute of injury time.