I can't speak for Shearer but I'm sure his biggest regret is that he didn't win a trophy with Newcastle.......followed by England.
Notice what all the players we are talking about here have in common...personality. Players who can impose their will to win on the game. Ability is about 50% of a great player. The other 50% is about being a boss.
No one comes near Beardsley - a true world class player and not one of these modern world class players
Shearer England's best out and out striker since Lineker by a country mile, only one better in the PL was Henry, Bergkamp and Zola were more of the second striker type players.
For me the best player that I have ever seen was Beardsley. I would even go and watch Liverpool games, sometimes abroad, just to watch him play.
Just a quick look at their records, Shearer played a total of 734 games in cup and league and scored 379 goals, Henry played a total of 792 cup and league games and scored 360 goals, 135 matches and 52 goals were scored in the MLS playing for New York, not a comparable league to Shearer finishing his career in the Premier League, Henry was brilliant at Arsenal but he had better players around him than Shearer did at Newcastle in my opinion, for me Shearer is one of the best strikers to have ever played in top flight football in England. I do wonder though if Super Mac had played under comparable conditions and as many matches that he would have outscored both these players, he played a total of 488 matches in league and cup and scored 260 goals putting him ahead just on the goals pre game ratio, I not only saw him play but also in real life as he lived on my street in Morpeth when he played for us.
Or maybe people are aware, but reserving their comments for players they've seen during their lifetimes? I appreciate you've more lifetime than most on here - given your ability to wax lyrical about Sunderland's 19th century performances - but perhaps you could take that into account for the rest of us?
Shearer No.1 in the PL era for me - no bias about it either. Henry was brilliant also. Suarez and Aguero of the recent batch are outstanding. I'd just go Shearer as he had a better all round game. Left foot, right foot, heading, passing, holding the ball up, crossing, not to mention adapting his game through the injuries to remain world class. He also didn't have the quality around him the likes of Henry had. I mean being honest, how many more goals would he have scored had he played in Arsenal or Man U best team. Cantona is the best 2nd striker I've seen and obviously the likes of Bergkamp, Zola would be in that mix. I just felt Cantona would always deliver when it mattered. Can you imagine if Man U had got Shearer and paired him with Cantona? That's ****ing frightening. I think its easy to crib Shearer because he's English and not maybe the razzle dazzle of a Henry. However if you look at his technique he matched any player world wide in his position in terms of touch and ball striking technique. There are not many of those types about. Batistuta was one and he was class. Costa now reminds very much of that type. Drogba. Few and far between where you get that sublime balance of technical ability and brute force.
Aye, but Henry started his career as a winger! Henry was absolutely unbelievable. For me it's him or Suarez as the greatest to have played in the premier league (I think it's a disgrace people mention that greedy twat Zola in the same thread by the way!). Alan Shearer is probably the best story, and the most inspiring on-field character ever, as well as being a goal machine. How many people worldwide do you reckon know about Newcastle United because of Shearer? How many little lads still kick the ball at the neighbour's garage door, and wheel away with one arm aloft? He had a great team around him, though, which allowed his ridiculous single minded goal-getting attitude to flourish. Shay Given in the peak of his career, Speed, Batty, Lee, Robert, Bellamy, Dyer, Solano etc etc. He had a great team around him at Blackburn too.
Henry did have great players around like some have said but the Arsenal team wasn't set up for him to score the goals like it was for Shearer. Arsenal had more of a system where the goals got shared around. That's how I remember it anyway. And I would say Henry created more of his own goals than Shearer did. I find it difficult to split them to be honest and they were different types of forwards but I think Henry was the slightly better player.
He was always amazing but before the injury he was more prolific because he could simply be in the box more due to his bit of pace. His injury would have finished some players but the way he rebuilt himself into a sort of target man was incredible. He had everything in his day.
Of course I will if you in turn will take into account you are novices, maybe someone on this board could check back to when NUFC had their most success and ban any mention of players before this time
Why? Just because you aren't in a successful team doesn't prevent a player from being the best player ever. For my two pennen the worth the best player I have ever seen at Newcastle was Tony Green. The player most similar in style to him would be Peter Beardsley and he was better than Peter Beardsley which to me, if you accept my comparison, shows how good he was. Best striker for us was Shearer. Best goal scorer was Andy Cole. Best in the PL ever is almost impossible to pick as you are talking fractions of differences between the very best players and different styles and positions. Working on a different approach of having the money to buy only one great player I would honestly go for Shearer. Henry, Bergkamp, Zola etc were all great players but scoring goals is the hardest job on a football pitch and Shearer was the best and his stats over his career back this up.
