Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has revealed how he once witnessed Alan Shearer pin former fan favourite David Ginola up against a wall once during a half-time team talk.
Lawro, who briefly worked at the club as a defensive coach under Kevin Keegan, told how Ginola had angered the Newcastle captain after a poor first-half performance.
Here’s what he’s had to say about the heated incident back in 1996:
“I coached David at Newcastle when I was there with Kevin Keegan, and he had fantastic ability,”
“He was a big, strong, imposing guy as well and I’ll never forget when we were playing at home against Arsenal, who were obviously a very good side themselves.
“David was playing on the left side, left-wing basically, and he kept cutting inside with the ball. Our front two would have been Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand and they were just trying to get in the box to try and get on the end of the cross but, honestly, the first 45 minutes, he must have done it 20 times.
“He kept cutting inside and he would have a look at Shearer and Ferdinand to make a run but then decided to beat the full-back again.
“The whistle goes for half-time and there’s Kevin, Terry McDermott and myself and Kevin said very cleverly, ‘Let’s just stay here a minute and let them get into the dressing room’.
“We did that for about two or three minutes and then we got into the dressing room and Shearer had him up against the wall and obviously he was effing and jeffing at him and basically saying to him, ‘If you do not cross that so and so ball first time in the second half, I’m going to knock your lights out’.
“Well, guess what? He did [cross it].”
This tale shows how much Shearer cared about playing for our club and how much it meant for him to win – not that many would condone his actions that day!
It also gives an insight into the well-documented ego the man possessed – something that most strikers tend to have – that he was demanding his team-mate put it on a plate for him.
He knew that if he had a chance on goal, it was likely that he would score.
Many team-mates probably didn’t always like him, with stories from Craig Bellamy and Keith Gillespie over the years adding fuel to that fire, but you can be sure as hell that they respected him!
