Alan Shearer’s lack of trophies in his otherwise illustrious career keeps him out of Rio Ferdinand’s Premier League hall of fame, according to the former Man Utd skipper.
The competition’s all-time leading goalscorer was commemorated alongside Thierry Henry this week as the first two players to be inducted into the new hall of fame, with more players yet to be announced at a later date.
Big Al won the title with Blackburn in 1994/95 before moving back home in 1996 to join Kevin Keegan’s Toon side for a world record £15million.
Rejecting interest from Man Utd, Shearer also turned down the chance to win a sack load of trophies in order to play for and become a cult hero at his boyhood club.
Ferdinand wasn’t having it, and said this to say on his Premier League ‘top 10’ while working as a pundit for BT Sport:
“It’s hard not to put Steve Gerrard in [the list] because my criteria I’m going on is winning the Premier League and consistency.
“That’s why Gareth Bale or Barry doesn’t get in, and Alan Shearer wouldn’t get in my first 10 – they were great but as great as they were they didn’t win enough for me.”
As you’d expect, Newcastle fans have hit back at Rio on social media, with many perplexed by his comments.
By Ferdinand’s own metric, that would makes players like Wes Brown and Danny Drinkwater more worthy of being in the hall of fame than the likes of Alan Shearer and Steven Gerrard!
Trophies don’t define how good of a player you were. They can define how iconic you have been in the league to an extent, but that doesn’t paint the full picture.
Shearer remains the division’s greatest ever goalscorer until somebody – likely Harry Kane – comes along and knocks him off his perch.
A lot of football is subjective and based on personal opinion, but I don’t see how you can leave the competitions all time top scorer out of your top 10!
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Rio Ferdinand along with the likes of Robbie Savage, Chris Sutton & Paul Merson stay on our TVs and stay ‘relevant’ by saying stupid and controversial things like this.
They know that off the back of one stupid comment like this there will be numerous social media posts, articles and **** bait headlines with their names all over them – hoy Richard Keys in that list too.
Shearer only won one PL trophy, but he never missed a single drugs test ????
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: what is **** bait?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If you dont know by now Eric, you never will.
Paul Myers(Quote)
Really…..he is rewriting the rules of my favourite boardgame again….Clueless
Tiptree geordie(Quote)