Trevor Francis tried to buy Alan Shearer for Sheffield Wednesday

[@owlstalk]

 

Sheffield Wednesday player and manager Trevor Francis says he tried to sign Alan Shearer for the Owls during his time managing the club

 

He said: "I watched Alan Shearer playing for Southampton and have never been more certain about a player, bearing in mind that when you are considering any player you can never be 100 per cent sure about how it will turn out.

 

“I was never more certain about a player than I was about Alan Shearer.

 

“I remember at the time I rang Alan to ask him if he would be interested in coming to Sheffield Wednesday.

 

“The fee was £3m. I went to our chairman, Dave Richards, and said, ‘Listen, it’s a lot of money but I have never been more certain about a player – I guarantee that in a couple of years’ time, if you wanted to, you would be able to double your money.’

 

We did not sign him and he went to Blackburn Rovers for around £4m in 1996 and then, after helping Rovers win the Premiership, went to Newcastle United for an enormous fee of well over £15m.

 

“Whilst there was no interest from the Wednesday board, my business partner at the time, property developer Nick Rogers, who was not a football man, said, ‘Between us can’t we buy him?’

 

“I told him that the rules meant that you could not do that in English football.

 

“I remember Carlos Tevez at West Ham United being owned by a third party but in 1993 that was not an option.”


Read the full article by Dom Howson here  

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/football/news/sheffield-wednesday-alan-shearer-interest-18256241

[Owls-Fan]

Just read that online too, slow news day. I remember Nigel Pearson said recently at that Man City game how it was our failure to push on around that time that cost us. We sat back too much and ended up signing weaker players rather than improving on what we had.  
 

Somewhere there’s a parallel universe where Cantona and Shearer, Lombardo and Dani all played in the blue and white of Wednesday 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, Owls-Fan said:

Just read that online too, slow news day. I remember Nigel Pearson said recently at that Man City game how it was our failure to push on around that time that cost us. We sat back too much and ended up signing weaker players rather than improving on what we had.  
 

Somewhere there’s a parallel universe where Cantona and Shearer, Lombardo and Dani all played in the blue and white of Wednesday 

And Kluivert and Gazza

[unkastav]

5 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

And Kluivert and Gazza

And Rasiak

[room0035]

I thought when Man Utd offered us £4m for Hirst we had lined up Shearer as his replacement. Or that were the rumours back in the day and Hirst stayed so we didn't sign Shearer.

 

But had Hirst gone to Man Utd he would have had the great career and Shearer would have had Hirst career. Shearer had a lot of injuries too but got time to recover Hirst was always rushed back too soon.

 

I can remember being at a reserve game when Hirst was making his latest comeback there was over 11,000 watching a reserve game to see their god Hirst returning. 

 

I think Hirst partnered Shearer when he made his England Debut against France at the time Hirst was higher in the pecking order of England strikers but as we know too many injuries and never got back to level of Shearer what might have been.

 

 

[TrickyTrev]

His arrival would have coincided with Hirsty starting to pick up more frequent injuries, he’d have been the perfect replacement for Hirst partnering Bright up front.

 

Shame.

[shandypants]

41 minutes ago, unkastav said:

And Rasiak

And Lineker and Le Tissier

[apswfcowl]

Could spot a player old Tricky Trev. I heard we once had a Frenchman called Eric Cantona on trial but Our Trevor decided against it  

[matthefish2002]

I dont think Francis was the only one who rated Shearer at that time.

He did go to Blackburn for a record fee around that time.

Basically we didn't sign him because we couldn't afford him.

[Inspector Lestrade]

Yeah but what did he ever do?  Scored one or two goals that's about it, we had Booth.

[bobness]

1 hour ago, @owlstalk said:

“I was never more certain about a player than I was about Alan Shearer"

 

Only because he witnessed him playing on grass!

[@owlstalk]

“I was never more certain about a player than I was about Alan Shearer."

Yeah...

Course I believe you Trevor

Cause you always tell the truth innit yo fam.

[Plonk]

Remember the rumours we were after him. Can you imagine, him hairstyles and cantona. Bloodyhell.

[billyblack]

11 hours ago, @owlstalk said:

 

Sheffield Wednesday player and manager Trevor Francis says he tried to sign Alan Shearer for the Owls during his time managing the club

 

He said: "I watched Alan Shearer playing for Southampton and have never been more certain about a player, bearing in mind that when you are considering any player you can never be 100 per cent sure about how it will turn out.

 

“I was never more certain about a player than I was about Alan Shearer.

 

“I remember at the time I rang Alan to ask him if he would be interested in coming to Sheffield Wednesday.

 

“The fee was £3m. I went to our chairman, Dave Richards, and said, ‘Listen, it’s a lot of money but I have never been more certain about a player – I guarantee that in a couple of years’ time, if you wanted to, you would be able to double your money.’

 

We did not sign him and he went to Blackburn Rovers for around £4m in 1996 and then, after helping Rovers win the Premiership, went to Newcastle United for an enormous fee of well over £15m.

 

“Whilst there was no interest from the Wednesday board, my business partner at the time, property developer Nick Rogers, who was not a football man, said, ‘Between us can’t we buy him?’

 

“I told him that the rules meant that you could not do that in English football.

 

“I remember Carlos Tevez at West Ham United being owned by a third party but in 1993 that was not an option.”

No interest from the Wednesday board shocker

[Prince]

10 hours ago, room0035 said:

I thought when Man Utd offered us £4m for Hirst we had lined up Shearer as his replacement. Or that were the rumours back in the day and Hirst stayed so we didn't sign Shearer.

 

But had Hirst gone to Man Utd he would have had the great career and Shearer would have had Hirst career. Shearer had a lot of injuries too but got time to recover Hirst was always rushed back too soon.

 

I can remember being at a reserve game when Hirst was making his latest comeback there was over 11,000 watching a reserve game to see their god Hirst returning. 

 

I think Hirst partnered Shearer when he made his England Debut against France at the time Hirst was higher in the pecking order of England strikers but as we know too many injuries and never got back to level of Shearer what might have been.

 

 

Shearer recovered from injuries because he was professional and not down the pub drinking 10+ pints a night. If Hirst had the same approach to the game as Shearer then his career wouldn’t have fizzled out like it did.
 

Hirst was as good if not better than Shearer for ability but Shearer looked after himself and didn’t p1ss his career up the wall.

[@owlstalk]

Just now, Prince said:

Shearer recovered from injuries because he was professional and not down the pub drinking 10+ pints a night. If Hirst had the same approach to the game as Shearer then his career wouldn’t have fizzled out like it did.
 

Hirst was as good if not better than Shearer for ability but Shearer looked after himself and didn’t p1ss his career up the wall.

Explain the likes of Carlton Palmer, Ray Parlour, Tony Adams etc etc then?

 

[Prince]

1 minute ago, @owlstalk said:

Explain the likes of Carlton Palmer, Ray Parlour, Tony Adams etc etc then?

 

Palmer never came back from injuries 2 stone heavier. Parlour and Adams I can’t really comment on as I didn’t watch them week in and week out. Surely you are not trying to make the argument that heavy drinking doesn’t affect recovery from injuries or athleticism?
 

Hirst was his own worse enemy and lots of our fans are blinded by hero worship so much they forgive his lifestyle and pass it off as being one of the lads. He was unprofessional and it cost him a great career instead of the average one he had. 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, Prince said:

Palmer never came back from injuries 2 stone heavier. Parlour and Adams I can’t really comment on as I didn’t watch them week in and week out. Surely you are not trying to make the argument that heavy drinking doesn’t affect recovery from injuries or athleticism?

No not at all

Just trying to understand how that whole generation of players seemed to be 'reyt boozy' and it didn't affect many of them at all. Seasoned international players playing week in week out whilst also lashing it up

[Sergeant Tibbs]

14 minutes ago, Prince said:

Shearer recovered from injuries because he was professional and not down the pub drinking 10+ pints a night. If Hirst had the same approach to the game as Shearer then his career wouldn’t have fizzled out like it did.
 

Hirst was as good if not better than Shearer for ability but Shearer looked after himself and didn’t p1ss his career up the wall.

Looking back it’s sad to think the only time I came into contact with one of my hero’s was so he could sponge a Marlboro Light off me.
 

Still, he wasn’t the only great player we had at that time who didn’t look after himself. 

[Prince]

4 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

No not at all

Just trying to understand how that whole generation of players seemed to be 'reyt boozy' and it didn't affect many of them at all. Seasoned international players playing week in week out whilst also lashing it up

Imagine how good some of those guys would have been if they had abstained from the drink until retirement, we could have had world beaters instead of also rans turning out for England. In tournaments such as Italia 90 and Euro 96 that extra % from fitter players could have carried us over the line.