‘Get Alan Shearer!’ – How Aston Villa tried and failed to sign a Newcastle United legend

Once upon a time, sometime in the 90s.

A certain Alan Shearer almost signed for Aston Villa, John Gregory was certainly very keen.

Here we look back to the time when one of the Premier League’s greatest strikers was wanted by the boys in claret and blue.

The context

It was September1998 and Aston Villa were at the top of the early season Premiership (it wasn’t Premier League back then) table.

Villa had just puled off the signing of Paul Merson from Middlesbrough and manager John Gregory was daring to dream.

Having lost star striker Dwight Yorke to Manchester United (If I had a gun I would have shot him), Gregory was keen to boost his attacking options.

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His senior men were Julian Joachim and Stan Collymore, with rookies Darius Vassell, Richard Walker and Darren Byfield coming through the ranks.

Why wouldn’t he want England’s No.9 Alan Shearer? He would, and he did.

It just so happened Shearer’s club, Newcastle United, were the next visitors to Villa Park.

The background

Shearer had not long turned 28. He’d been at Newcastle just over two years following his record £15 million move from Blackburn Rovers, where he had fired them to the Premiership title.

He had scored 27 goals in his first season on Tyneside, but was restricted to just seven the following year because of an ankle injury.

By now he was England’s captain and the country’s main striker.

At St James’ Park, Kenny Dalglish had been replaced as manager by Ruud Gullit.

There was a feeling the Dutchman was not Shearer’s biggest fan – so Gregory took that as sufficient encouragement to make his move.

The boss

Gregory, writing in The Boss, takes up the story: “We had already made gentle but not ultimately successful enquiries to Newcastle about Alan Shearer.

“The Kenny Dalglish reign had just come to a sour conclusion and it appeared that things up on Tyneside were not exactly a bed of roses.

“I dared to wonder if Newcastle might let Alan go.

“New managers sometimes have their own ideas about how they want to play, a fresh approach that frequently bring about changes in staff and direction.

“As everyone in the game knew and took great delight in pointing out, Gullit was on record as saying he felt Alan had not been worth the fee Newcastle had paid for him.

“The subtext was clear: Gullit did not rate England’s number 9. If not I knew someone who did.”

The plan

Gregory was buzzing about the prospect of a serious swoop for Shearer.

He knew convincing Doug Ellis and the club’s board to sanction such a huge money deal would take some doing, but the manager was determined to make Villa genuine contenders for the top flight title.

It was the evening of September 9 1998 and Villa were preparing to play Shearer’s Newcastle.

Gregory was without Merson who had to watch from the stands as his transfer did not go through in time for him to be involved in a playing capacity.

JG’s plan was to get Villa Park rocking and to show the Geordie striker Villa were a club who were going places.

“I knew from within the game that Alan had got wind of our interest,” recalled Gregory.

“I guess he must have been thinking what was in store for him under Gullit.

“So that night became an occasion all about selling the club and the idea of joining us to Shearer, with Merse sat up in the stands watching.

“I was desperate the boys show the Great Man they were not a bad side. If he had dismissed us as a club he did not want to come to, I wanted him to at least have second thoughts.

“I wanted us to play well and show him what we were all about. A real team.”

The match

Villa did play well. They won 1-0 with a penalty from Lee Hendrie and Gregory was particularly impressed by the rearguard action to protect the lead late on, which showcased the team ethic and all for one, one for all attitude within the claret and blue dressing room.

It was epitomised by little Alan Wright blocking a goalbound Shearer effort with his face in the closing stages.

Gregory even gathered his players around for a big group huddle to show their togetherness at the final whistle, although by that stage Shearer had already disappeared down the Trinity Road tunnel.

The reality

It didn’t work.

Gullit realised the importance of Shearer as a player and as an iconic figurehead for the Toon Army and straight-batted Gregory’s telephone enquiry the following day.

“Sadly nothing would come of my Get Shearer campaign,” remembered Gregory.

“I phoned Gullit the next day and dropped the Shearer idea into the conversation. He didn’t say ‘yes – but he didn’t say ‘no’.

“But I imagine the coming weeks told him that to sell Alan Shearer would be the equivalent of signing his own death notice.

“And we were never able to get any more daylight out of St James’ Park from our enquiries. But that would be Shearer’s loss, that was my attitude.”

What happened next

Villa instead turned their attentions to someone closer to home, enticing Dion Dublin from neighbours Coventry City for £5,750,000 in November 1998.

Dublin went on to score 11 goals that season and rattled in 16 in 1999-2000 despite missing three months with a serious neck injury.

In a claret and blue career spanning six years, he found the net 59 times in 189 appearances.

In 1998-99 Villa were top at Christmas but their championship challenge fell away in the new year and they finished sixth, with Newcastle 13th.

The following season they were sixth again with Newcastle 11th.

And while the Magpies had been beaten FA Cup finalists in 1998 and 1999, Villa were the Wembley runners-up in 2000.

Shearer went on to win the player of the month award for October. He scored 21 goals for Newcastle in 1998-99, including one in a 2-1 St James’ Park victory over Villa in January 1999, a defeat that kickstarted Villa’s tumble from the top.

His stay at Newcastle lasted 10 years until 2006 and he scored more than 200 goals for his home city club.

But despite flirting with silverware success, Shearer and Newcastle, like Gregory and Villa, were unable to clinch the trophies they craved.