"If you ask any other kid who was stood at Man United at the Stretford end or Arsenal or The Kop as a twelve, thirteen, fourteen-year-old kid who have now got the opportunity to do that, I’m pretty much sure that all of them would do that. I did it. I achieved my dreams." - Alan Shearer
As a football fan you can only dream of playing for the club you support, the club you love, the club your father (or in my case, uncle) gifts or curses you with, the club you follow home and away, the club whose colours paint your blood. For the very lucky, this becomes a reality. The likes of Wayne Rooney and Jack Grealish can say they did it for their club – think Rooney’s screamer debut goal against Arsenal, the blue-covered kid from Croxteth. But Rooney, like Grealish recently, did something that many of us perhaps could never even consider – he leaves (relatively) little old Everton for the mighty Manchester United, winning more-or-less everything a professional club-level player can win.
From a fan’s perspective, it is very difficult to imagine being in a situation like this, hence the hate a player like Grealish receives after leaving Aston Villa for guaranteed trophies at Manchester City. To fans, the idea of being a professional football player at all it a ridiculous notion for most, let alone for the team you support, and let alone having the chance to play for one of the sports biggest clubs. Fans perspective of football is mostly watching it, the joys of winning and the pain of losing. A footballer’s perspective of football would be much different. Football is their job, their career and naturally if you’re passionate and successful at your job, would you not want to be as successful as possible? Would you not want that big move? Trophies? League titles? More money?
Alan Shearer grew up a ten-minute drive away from St James’ Park and would play football on the streets of Tyneside (presumptively) in the shirt of his beloved Newcastle United. It took him a ways to get there, and a Premier League title en route, but Shearer gets his move to Newcastle: ‘I’m going home. It’s my dream move. I’d stood on the terraces as a kid watching Newcastle […] I stood in the Gallowgate End watching my heroes play and I thought, “I’ve got the opportunity to do that”’. Al snubs Fergie for Keegan. The beginning to a true footballing fairy tale which must end in a trophy or two, but a quick look at Shearer’s ‘Honours and achievements’ section on Wikipedia is dismal reading as Shearer only achieved two FA Cup runners up medals – he could have won the treble at United. Newcastle won zero trophies in Shearer’s ten years at St James’. Some would say he might as well have stayed at Blackburn or should have taken that move to United (or Barcelona who wanted him after Sir Bobby Robson took charge). But the black and white twelfth-man that surrounds the ground at St James’ every other weekend would oppose – ‘Hello! Hello! We are the Geordie boys, we’re gonna win f**k all again but we still follow United’. Winning trophies is not what football is about . At least it wasn’t to Shearer or the Toon army who proudly bellow their lack of success from the terraces Shearer himself once stood. Shearer didn’t win trophies with Newcastle but he won something much, much more special.
Not all players are Alan Shearer’s and nor should they be. Moving from a boyhood club to a more successful club is part of football, players have goals and ambitions that maybe their club can’t achieve. We shouldn’t hate a player for leaving, but we should love a player for staying.
‘If I had the chance to do it again, I’d do exactly the same thing’.
by Joe Roberts
Shearer quotes found at https://youtu.be/wX8_BpKJieo
Image rights Bill Henderson