Alan Shearer reveals all on Mike Ashley, Manchester United & more to Gary Neville | The Overlap

i'd met kevin in the morning and then saw alex in the afternoon at david platt's mother-in-law's house so alex's words were am i senior first or second and i said well i've met kevin this morning he goes that's me then i was meant to be the final piece of the jigsaw didn't quite work out like that you agree to sign for newcastle manchester can you believe after singing everything i do i do with me and bex and i had my medical air and everything there that was taking the pistol the bastard you know goalscorers correct [Music] [Music] [Music] alan welcome to the oval app we're here in the docklands if you like in newcastle just talk to us a little bit of what this city means to you and sort of growing up in this area well i was born here as soon as i could walk my old man chucked a ball at my feet in a newcastle top and that was it i'm no different to any other kid that's just what happens here football means that much to everyone my dad went to watch newcastle every single week and loved it as as much as anyone else i did exactly the same with my son as soon as he could walk there's a football there's a newcastle kitten he goes to all the games now home and away and he's a mad newcastle fan just like i am what impact does it have on the city the football i know everybody up here is absolutely mad it says you know about football but what impact does it have when the team's down particularly to say the last 10 years which has been really difficult the football club is their life they go to work all week monday to friday seven till five or seven till six to earn money to spend on a weekend to have a good time and spending their money means going to watch their club newcastle going to the pubs and restaurants on on a saturday night then they start all over again so newcastle is their life i mean i've been all over the country and i've not quite seen anywhere that when you walk around the town you see the nanas and grandes the moms and dads the brothers and sisters all the kids wearing the black and white wearing the the shirt so it is their life so for the last 14 years it's been really difficult because they've had no hope cup competitions have been zero and it's just been about surviving so i can sort of understand and get why all of a sudden there's a little bit of excitement in the city your dad grew up as a sheet metal worker what sort of life did you have growing up i lived in a three-bedroom council house on an estate we had the flats opposite where i used to go and kick a ball against the walls and get a bollocking every now and again to keep the noise down they gave me what they had which wasn't a lot they went out and worked extremely hard my dad worked in the factories used to come in at uh at five o'clock his tea was ready for him on the table probably still is actually and then they give me the boots they gave me whatever they paid for the travel and they if it wasn't for them i would never have been in the position i am now because um yeah i owe everything to them what sort of advice would they give you as a youngster in terms of football but generally around life they would just tell me to do what i wanted to do so long as i worked hard yeah um they didn't push me they didn't force me they just wanted me to to go out and give it a right good go and i'm like that now with uh with my kids if i didn't make it it wouldn't have mattered but the support and pushed me all the way as much as they could and i know if it hadn't worked then that wouldn't have been a problem for them you look at sort of you know growing up in newcastle how difficult was it when you sort of got to 15. yeah that was the hard part and you've got to leave here well that was really difficult was that a decision to make do i sign schoolboy forms at 14 which it was what it was then and then i got offered the apprenticeship to go down to southampton and leave everything behind leave newcastle behind leave my mum and dad leave all my pals and i still remember getting on the train and i could see my mom standing on the side when the train's pulling away and the tears were coming down her face like a 15 year old 15 is a yeah it's a young age especially when i've got kids now i look back and thank god i'm not sure i could have let my kids go all that way at that age but it was the best thing i ever did because it got me away from the council estate it got me away from one or two of my pals who were starting to lead me down a different direction i learned the game basically and i went into a dressing room that was really tough but it was the best thing i ever did and starting the old yts apprenticeship and it was it was tough at the time but it was amazing how does alan shearin not get spotted around here you think about the hotbed of football newcastle even on god forbid sunderland or other clubs are around here why would you not have been i went to west brom on trial i went to manchester city on trial i went to newcastle on trial and i felt as if they were okay and they got one or two offers newcastle offered me also but i looked at southampton and i looked at their um youth set up the players over the years before me who had come through that that system and i thought you know what if i'm going to be given a chance i'm probably going to get one there have a bigger and better chance of going down there and also i just felt for me to get out of of newcastle and go and learn football and grow up and as i said i think that was probably one of the best decisions i ever made everybody up here has got a passion for newcastle united that lives in this city why does the club not just hone in because they want that connection so much between the fans and the players i can see that when i come up here and saw it for the last 25 years and i'm not from newcastle why does he not have that incredible sort of youth conveyor belt why is it not really holding all the players and the talent up here and the passion and build from that what's the reasoning behind it well it needs investment the academy needs investment you know as well as as i do that you don't get anything without putting something in there and for the last 14 years it's had nothing i mean the training ground and the academy is exactly how it was when i left back in 2006. nothing being spent nothing nothing at all it's the same academy same tuning ground it might add a lick of pain but other than that it's nothing and when you look at the players i've come out with the north east whether that's peter beardsley steve bruce michael carrick alan thompson steve watson lee clark all of these guys and many guys before that it's incredible because going forward whatever whatever happens that has to change because there's far too much talent yeah that has gone from this area gone and signed for the clubs and that has to change and i'm hopeful that it will is it an investment in the training ground or is it the investment in the scouting the recruitment the quality of the culture everything everything it has to be everything it has to be an investment in newcastle's training ground newcastle's academy in this scout and in the coaching it has to do everything because without all that then players are still going to go to other football clubs in terms of yourself obviously there's been a lot of talking last few weeks about you being reintroduced into could it be that that type of area of the club is something that you could look at and just completely overhaul is that a project that you would look at i mean there's been talk about an ambassador but isn't is it not a focus on the youth and the academy and the actual young people of newcastle it needs to be sort of there well that's all it has been at the minute is talk gary because they've got far more important and bigger decisions to make than who they're going to bring in his ambassador or who they're going to bring into the to the games if they want to sit down and talk then of course i'll be willing to uh to do that but at the minute there hasn't been anything and i wouldn't expect it to be anything we're experiencing at united at this moment in time where you've got a lot of ex-players that are in positions at the club the manager coaching staff technical directors ambassadors it works successfully say a club like kayaks where the ix runs right the way through the club is that something that this new ownership you think can put into newcastle not for the sake of it you have to have the right skill sets but the idea that up here it is a little bit like a bilbao you know where everything feels very much connected to the people the fans that's not to say you won't bring in players from say you know different parts of the country are overseas but there is a real connection between the ownership the fans the players do you think that's a way forward for newcastle i do in certain aspects because whenever whenever i sit and watch the matches on the tv i always see former players sat in the stands or sat in the director's box whether that's promoting the youth whether that's just bringing in people from different parts of the country i always feel there is a place for for ex-players every other football club does it other than newcastle we know the reasons why it hasn't happened over the past few years but again i would be pretty hopeful that you would see that start to change i know there was a few ex-players at the at the tottenham game which was great to see because there are players not only in this country but in europe who have been successful here or they might not have won anything but in terms of who they are and what they are and what they could bring to the football club i would think there's something for the football club to look out there why would mike ashley a smart businessman made billions of pounds in his sort of private businesses why would he not do that most simple thing it's the most simple thing in well i think it is just so what would be if you like connect with local people whether that be ex players fans how could he not have done that why would he not have done that you tell me i mean because i i think it's pretty simple i would think it would be very simple to get on the phone to an ex-player to say oh come and try and do this or mix with him or go and meet these guys for the benefit of the football club to promote them to push them forward i haven't got a clue your guest is as good as mine we've seen the scenes in the last few weeks just it's great excitement enjoyment is that something that you share as well oh yeah i do absolutely i'm a fan you know i want the football club to challenge i want them to be bigger and better i want to have a little bit of hope and that's exactly why there's so many people that are happy because newcastle has flatlined for the last 14 years as i said there's been no hope there's been no excitement there's been nothing to look forward to and you think about newcastle united last season they couldn't give they couldn't give 10 000 tickets away no one wanted them and that was the situation that newcastle were in so we'd go back to where the they were in terms of the owners coming in the ground was buzzing again there was an excitement there because that's what's gone on in the past now they can look forward and i just think they would have been happy whoever came in if they had to give them a little bit of hope it just so happens that the the people that have come in are incredibly wealthy but it's 14 years that i've gone and now can look forward and have that excitement again you're a newcastle man what would you say newcastle's values and principles are not in the last 14 years but generally as a club hard work entertain that's why when you come up here everyone who's involved with football and the football club will mention the likes of the entertainers or kevin keegan because he gave everyone a little bit of hope he gave everyone the football that they wanted and some of the players that he brought in not only from this country but from abroad because i often hear it's it's difficult to get players to come up and play in newcastle well they're a huge football club and you're almost guaranteed 52 000 every single week and bigger if they could extend the the ground if you give them that little bit of hope we're at a bryan adams concert we're singing summer of 96 together that night is the night you went to meet kevin keegan i met kevin in manchester i just thought you know what i'm gonna go back home i'm gonna come back to newcastle i can't let this opportunity go how would you describe mike ashley's reign at newcastle united disastrous disastrous flat no hope no excitement i couldn't describe it in any other world you mentioned before the principles of newcastle hard work entertaining but also i when i come up here the people are straight yep they're honest how would you describe mike ashley i don't think he should ever have got involved in the football club i don't know why he did he may have made a lot of money i haven't got a clue i don't really want to um it's got nothing to do with me anymore but it he's an incredibly successful businessman and no one can knock him for that in whatever way he wants to do it but i don't think he him or his people sort of understood football or what he was getting into did he lose the fans at the point where that end of that season where he didn't make you the manager for the following season even though he promised you the job was that the point where you think it turned it turned for you then i suspected it in terms of just the integrity i don't think that was the the point i mean that was very hugely disappointing for me because i thought i was going to go on and do that i'd left a lot behind in terms of leaving the bbc to do what i was was doing i mean i love doing that but i felt at the end of the the eight games although what happened it was a disaster but it wasn't for the want of trying or hard work i knew that we'd all given everything but i did want the chance to try and bring newcastle back up and then it didn't happen and then after a year or two i thought you know what it's never going to happen i've got to then concentrate on the media side of things but i don't think he lost it then i just think over time when you look at what could have happened what he could have done and no one wanted him to do what manchester city would do and what chelsea were doing or man united were doing and spending the hundreds of millions of pounds to go and demand a premier league just wanted a club that tried that wanted to achieve something rather than just trying to avoid relegation all the time in terms of sort of now what do the owners of newcastle united football club need to do obviously we're here now in this bit of land where the shepherd family owned this piece of land they were successful owners of newcastle united they connected with the fans they know the local area what do this ownership who are not connected to the local area need to do to connect to the newcastle fans what they must understand is is that these people as i said i keep going back to that core of people working extremely hard all week to go and support their club they will travel all over the world they will buy whatever they want them to to buy so long as they give that little bit of hope that little bit of excitement and something to look forward to [Music] al so we're at a bryan adams concert yeah in 1996 post european championships i've just put that little crossing on your head i'm thinking really feeling really confident you're just about to leave blackburn we're singing summer of 96 together your agents there bex is there in the box with us and lo and behold that night is the night you went to meet kevin keegan absolutely it was a great cross by the way um yeah it was i met kevin before the concert uh in in huddersfield yeah and things were were great but i was still i was still undecided then because such a big decision i mean man united as you know huge football club manager we don't have to talk about him because i know how big he is and at one stage i was actually i'd made the decision i'd gone home and said i'm going to go on monday night we even sort of had a drive around manchester and we're going to buy graham soonest house on mia right not so long after that concert that we were both i got another call off kevin to say i can have another half an hour with you and i did and i just thought you know what i'm going to go back home i'm going to come back to newcastle i can't let this opportunity go what was the sequence of events so alex had met you when just before that comes earlier on that day i'd met them uh both after that again believe it or not at david platt's mother-in-law's house right somewhere in chester i think it was i'd met kevin in the morning and then sir alex in the afternoon and so alex's words were my senior first or second and i said well i've met kevin this morning he goes that's me [Laughter] it wasn't as straightforward as that it was a really really tough decision but i mean this this place as you know i grew up here i came and stood on the gala again there and watched my hero kevin keegan and every single week i used to come and watch i thought i've got to go home and they were willing to pay a world record fee for me and it wasn't as if i was coming to a club that was struggling i mean the season before that just blown that 12-point lead i think it was against you lot and then um i was meant to be the final piece in the jigsaw didn't quite work out like that in terms obviously i played under kevin with england for sort of a couple years and his enthusiasm was it that or was it the newcastle was it bomb no i mean it wasn't i didn't sign for kevin i know kevin was the manager i mean kevin was brilliant at selling in newcastle united but he didn't he didn't have to to me because i knew what it was everyone knew what newcastle night had meant to me it was a good job i didn't sign for him because he was only here six months he thought i had signed in the july or august and then kevin sort of left it at christmas so it was a good job i didn't really sign for him it was the football club that i signed for and i just wanted to be a part of it and i wanted to play here i had to play here what was the point where you said i'm going back was that was there a discussion was there a conversation with your wife i met kevin um believe it or not in manchester uh he was he was flying out to the far east on a pre-season trip and he said can i come and see you and the team have gone and he was going to get on a flight separately so i went to meet him that was a decision then and i never ever went back home i rang home i said you're going to have to pack a bag for me i've made my decision send a bag through to the airport put it in a cab and uh i never ever went back to that house so you agree to sign for newcastle manchester can you believe that after singing everything i do i do me and bex and i had my medical air and everything here that was taking the picture but i had to then ring sir alex because i was that i i yeah i just thought i've spoken to him in terms of him wanting to sign me for one united i thought the decent thing is to ring him now so i rang him on the way to the airport no answer i rang him again no answer so um i thought he's definitely not taking my call so i thought i had to leave him has he been told then i think he'd be already being told i don't know who had told him but i think he was aware of the situation and not surprisingly he didn't want to take my call you had dinner with lunch with him a few weeks ago what was he saying about it he always reminds me whenever i see him about turning them man united down twice i said it wasn't twice it was only once it was the time of 96 i couldn't have signed it in 92 when i was leaving southampton to go to blackburn and he always reminds me how many trophies i would have had and what can i say how can it be that difficult for you to have a statute in the right place outside this ground ask my friend mike the late great sir bobby came in and he saved my career and saved this football club hi everyone i hope you're enjoying this episode this is just a quick thank you to sky bet our partners for making this show happen it's something i've wanted to do for a long long time please subscribe there's loads more episodes coming up and i hope you're enjoying it right let's get back into this episode [Music] you scored an unbelievable amount of goals there unbelievable career but there were ups and downs alone just talk to us generally about how we describe your newcastle career and was it everything that you wished for and hoped for it was everything i'm more my first goal was down at that end it was the leases end it was against wimbledon i mean amazing i mean can you imagine i grew up here i wanted to play for this football club to have 10 years here to have the record number of goals to have a statue and to have the relationship with the fans and the football club that i have i mean i wouldn't change a thing despite the trophies i know would have had a shed load of more trophies but despite all of that it was an amazing 10 years you know i wouldn't change anything for the world you mentioned the statute how can it be that difficult for you to have a statute in the right place outside this ground yeah it's just outside all me it's only uh only about 10 yards outside i mean i got to thank the the shepherd family for that because they were the ones that that funded it uh along with the along with the council and putting it where it where it is club's grounds it's about 10 yards out outside at the club for whatever reason ask bike my friend mike asked mike why you wouldn't or lee chong who they wouldn't allow it in inside the ground i just staggers me and then there's another story about the bar named after you and then they changed the name of the bar yeah there was a bar um at that end gallagher end was was named after me but uh soon after when mike came in i went to number nine bar and not shearers anymore it wasn't my bar it was just to my name i never got any proceeds from it unfortunately that'll turn back now you think we'll see the shiraz bar return i don't know maybe maybe that's one of the things that new owners might do i know they spoke about moving the statue which is obviously very very kind so we'll see what happens just take us through some of the managers you played under the great managers you know sir bobby robson what was it like to play champions league football so bobby robson here well we started off with kevin uh and of course and um with kevin because i was with england when i look back now and i think it's one of the most bizarre endings of a managerial career but actually i respect him enormously because i always thought to be fair he just thought no it's not for me i've done enough i've taken it as far as it takes a lot to do that doesn't it his heart on his sleeve kevin isn't he very very emotional very very passionate and i still don't know the the full reasons as to why kevin left here when he did i would imagine it was him taking the club to somewhere different to where the owners wanted to go i had kenny blackburn and i thought he would have been tailor-made for uh for this place didn't quite work out for him then of course we had rude which um which i knew from sort of day one that i wasn't going to get on with rude when he was a manager i mean we get on great now and obviously i've seen you working together yeah we've gotten great he's brilliant to work with that's why why wouldn't you get on just because of he's a young manager you're an experienced player what was the what was the tension what was the problem well his words not mine when he uh when we did sit down and talk about it he was young he knew he was dutch and he was arrogant and that was his words not mine and that was the way it was actually i mean he came in and we had we had a really experienced dressing room with john barnes stuart pearce as we had myself we had rob lee ian rush i think might have been here at the time really experienced players and he didn't want anything to do with any senior players and sort of wanted to push everyone to one side which i just found bizarre because you could just lean on their experience and use those players to to guide you through the early periods but he didn't want anything to do with it and come in and sort of wanted to pick a fight with that with that which i thought was was just a disaster and then um the late great sir bobby came in i mean he saved my career here at newcastle and saved this football club because it was going down were you going to be relegated when you consider when he came in we were in the bottom three couldn't beat anyone went to chelsea in his first game it was put up a really good performance were beaten unfortunately but in his first game here against sheffield wednesday i think we just put it past him he got all the senior players into his office this is what he wants to do this is how he's going to treat everyone sort of got everyone smiling again so much energy back into the football club not inside the dressing room but also in this stadium and then we we scored it so from where he took us at the bottom of the league to champions league football i mean it was just some of the nights we had in the champions league which is phenomenal and he was a genius genius as a man manager how we got the best out of young players and experienced players i mean whether you were on five grand a week as a youngster or whether you were on 50 grand a week as a plus 30 year old he knew how to handle he knew how to get the best out of you and he was the very very best out there was he tough with players oh yeah yeah was it i mean he could turn the dressing room blue there's nobody no no absolutely yeah he could come in and and some of the rows that we had in in the dressing room but what he did was what he was brilliant at is come sunday or monday morning it was all forgotten about when he was come back and the arm around you again and then because he he had to get you to play for him again so he didn't mind telling you what he thought in the dressing room absolutely and in terms of his football style what was his football style in terms of what when he came to you said this is what i want from you what did he want from he wanted you to go and express yourself he wanted you to go and entertain but he just wanted to give give your all that's the type of the manager if you give everything for him he would look after you very much i think like sir alex did i mean if you go out and you battle for your manager he'll protect you to the hilt and and so bobby was like that which of the managers that you played under do you feel influences your view of football most i look at kenny we had kenny at blackburn for the three or four years that he was there and again as a man manager wanting to play for him wanting to go and break your neck for him on a football pitch and i look at managers like that and i think you know what i'm going to go out and i'm just going to give that extra hard yard that you want us to do kenny was brilliant terry venables was amazing as as you know great man manager and also a great coach on some of the sessions that he put on and what he wanted to do on a football pitch in terms of setting targets whether you're closing someone down or the shape that you were playing and he was superb at that but also protecting you and sir bobby um he was as i said in terms of a man manager bobby he was an absolute genius at that and when you consider some of the criticism that he had to put up with being an england manager to where he got to and i was absolutely delighted that he came in to to this football club his area and was able to do what he what he did i think well i know it meant so much to him and to his family was the success of sabrina robertson his experience his likability his quality or was it because as well that important bit around he understood the area he understood newcastle i think it was a bit of both but certainly he knew the area he knew what the people demanded and wanted and hoped and he spoke a great game and he was just so passionate about football i mean he could sit with you for days on end and talk about systems and football what he'd achieved in the game i mean when you look at the success that he had all around the world when he spoke you listened this club just let go of steve bruce it's a brutal ending i didn't want him to take him i was told i was going to be the manager two or three days later i got a call to see if there's an issue with a bank we'll be in touch and it's 2021 i'm still waiting for the call [Laughter] did you want to be manager of newcastle united i did after those eight games i always wanted to go into management i always thought i was going to go into management so when the opportunity came along probably a little bit earlier than than i had anticipated i couldn't turn it down i couldn't i mean i was the fourth manager that season when newcastle came knocking on my door with eight games left so i had to take it and despite what happened at the end of it yeah i thought i was going to be the manager and i was told i was going to be the manager i shook hands on i was going to be the the manager with mike at the end of the season and then two or three days later i got a call to see if there's an issue with the bank we'll be in touch and it's 2021 and i'm still waiting for the call that's not gonna happen and in terms of manager you're like no no no never no that's gone it's uh it's gone um i think you you're outside of the game now and you're looking on in and the longer you're out the game the harder it is to get back in but um no i'm um i had the eight games i loved it i thought i was gonna go into it but um management's not for me now this club's just let go a manager that's steve bruce it's a brutal ending you know we both we've both witnessed it in the last sort of what would be six to twelve months what was your feeling i mean because you said you knew steve as well so you were torn between the fans you turned between obviously dislike quite clearly for the owner of the time but also a good man and a friend of yours and steve bruce i'm a good pile of steve's him and his family and it hurt me a lot to see what they had to go through and football's brutal as you know and steve's big enough and honest enough to tell you that when you're not getting results you're going to have to take the flag so when that happens you're going to get hammered whether you like it or not and when you go into that position as manager you have to accept that you're going to have to take that on the chin in terms of the last two years from what he had in terms of on the pitch to to where they got to in in the league position i think it punched above their weight so in the ending i felt for him but it was the reason why i i said to him i didn't want him to take it because i was aware of that take this job i didn't want him to take it no because they're aware of what the feeling was i i know how difficult the football club was to manage he took on an almost an impossible situation because of what the fans wanted what the owner was and in terms of putting into the football club it was almost an impossible job for uh for steve after coming in and trying to follow rafa because i was aware of what rafa meant to the people here and how he communicated what he wanted he was very clever rapha in terms of what he did he did a good job but he was also very clever in what he did in terms of talking about the owner how did he talk about the old exact it's one of the things i don't come with i don't know anywhere near as much as you but the perception about what raffle did there in the perception of what steve bruce did here is absolutely just well when you when you look in terms of league positions there's very little they're almost identical points four goals four goals against this wasn't a great deal in it but what rafa was brilliant as was getting the fans on side in terms of dropping little hints dropping little bombs into the media about what's going on inside the football club what he was maybe wanting to do and couldn't do but steve i don't think did as well as that and and getting his point across and probably couldn't because he was the owner's appointment so he appreciated that and so he he sort of had to keep them on side in terms of not seeing anything against him i understood that i got that but i also know the problems and the issues that he had in wanting to do bring players in and and wasn't able to do that what is the structure of recruitment behind the scenes [Laughter] what's in what's in place what have the new owners picked up well i hope they would have picked up in terms of the recruitment that they've had and some of the money that has been spent nowhere near enough but when when they've gone out i mean you try and work out 40 million pounds for joe linton i mean how do you work that out and i actually feel sorry for joel linton at times because he was given the number nine sure he has to play center forward he was asked to go and score goals none of that is his fault that's not his position could never criticize his work rate in terms of what he does what he tries he never hides away but he's not a goal scorer he's not a number nine and he's not a center forward yet he was asked to do all that how do you work that out but mike ashley wouldn't be making that decision i wouldn't have thought so i wouldn't have thought so and that's one deal i've never really been able to look at and explain i don't think many people will be able to so in terms of the new owners coming in in charge of who's in charge of recruitment and that's what i'm seeing there's so many big decisions to be made here at this football club but do they want a sport and director or director of football the chief executive who's going to run the the actual football club so there's so many important big big decisions to be made because we said earlier they are in a relegation ball in terms of the ownership there are three owners there's two 10 shareholders the reuben brothers i think it is uh amanda stavely and husband and obviously the pi the investment fund from saudi arabia obviously 80 shareholder can make the final decision but who is the sort of decision maker here well at the moment it certainly looks like amanda and her husband but i guess because of those percentages what you've just mentioned they've got 80 percent the pif so i would imagine it's those guys that sign everything off and you've got to get answers from them before any big decisions can be made i think once you accept russian chinese abu dhabi money into this country in football clubs you can't then just say okay we're going to stop with saudi arabia what do you expect from the new owners in terms of their communication their adaptation to the area the connection to the club and are you comfortable with it do you want to hear more from them see more from they are disconnecting it a little bit in terms of the pif and the saudi arabian sort of state but there are some things that all happen over in saudi arabia which just cannot happen in the sort of normal world where does that sit with you in terms of alan shearer local newcastle fan i was as excited as any other fan here because of one um they got rid of the previous regime because there was no hope or excitement so that's one thing the owners have now come in and we can look forward as a football club to hopefully to bigger and better things and have that little bit of hope all be everyone's going to have to have a lot of patience because it's not going to happen overnight but i also think it's right that big questions are asked and are because more questions have been asked in the last two or three weeks than ever asked before and i know things that have gone on in in saudi arabia and outside of it that are totally unacceptable uh but the more questions they ask that that's going to be the better and i think the people here sort of understand that but it's also our job is to educate ourselves it was only a matter of time i think before um the saudi arabians would have gonna be allowed into into the premier league because as you see the russians chinese americans all all these these these countries are now inside the the the premier league but it's right that those questions are asked and and i also get answers but because i think the communications coming out of this football club we i mean we've had more in the last two weeks than we've ever had in the previous 14 years but in terms of that side of things also absolutely they have to answer those questions as well how do you under post football tough yeah it's really really difficult where'd you get that buzz from you hold the record for the most penalties scored in the premier league can you remember the four that you missed the best digital goal scorers correct also every guest on the overlap gets asked a question around failure is a bruise not a tattoo it was a saying that was sent to me off the back of being at valencia um obviously a massive failure but doesn't last forever what moment in your life do you feel was your absolute low couldn't get any worse and you've gone home and you don't know what to do when i broke my ankle i mean i i had three serious injuries the first one was i ruptured my cruciate ligament when i was at blackburn that wasn't too bad because i was young still fresh still energetic knew i would sort of get over it but when i uh when i broke my ankle i broke it in pre-season a year after i'd signed here i just thought oh god it was such a bad break as well because i displaced my ankle joint broke my ankle brought fib um and it was so hard the rehab whereas the rehab for the six or seven months when i did my cruciate it wasn't too bad because as i said i was young and i'd still had a few scars after that but at 27 28 to get over serious injuries that was when i was probably at my last year so we've never watched you play or played against you or even played with you i always thought that you were just like brick mentality just solid as a rock but were there ever moments where did you ever see a psychologist as a football player did you ever no never i never uh not that side of things i think i go back to uh to my parents bring me up in in in the way the way they did um and i think it was just you know kicking a ball out on a street and going out with your pals and where i was from you had to be sort of tough to to survive and if you if you weren't and you didn't really make it and going away at 15 was tough but i i it's not as if i could just get on a on a train and come back home for a weekend because it was that far away um you just had to learn to to deal with things but that that injury was really tough and i think it was sort of after that i realized that i had to change my game because i lost half a yard of pace and i knew that but i never ever wanted to say that what i didn't lose was is was that knack to being at the the right place at the right time i was still able to score 20 or 25 goals a season but i knew i had to sort of change my game uh slightly and i was able to do that fortunately how have you handled pulse football career obviously we see you on the television but how have you handled post football career in terms of just the the loss of adrenaline the loss of the everyday structure has that been difficult tough yeah it's really really difficult um it's not until you really finish that it's that's that's the end i mean you go in everything's structured you wake up take the kids to school go into training train go back home rest get ready prepare for the for the saturday or the year or the wednesday and you've done that for 18 or 20 years and then all of a sudden one day boom that's it finished off and then the club really don't want anything to do with you anymore that's it you've gone and then all of a sudden where'd you get that where'd you get that buzz from where'd you get that adrenaline rush run because walking out in this tunnel here or scoring a gall at the gallagher end there is there is no better feeling in the in the world and then all of a sudden gone finished it's hard to uh it's hard to deal with i was lucky because i sort of left one dressing room and gone into another one in terms of the match of the day studio with alan hansen or ian wright or whoever that may be so you still get a bit of cracking in the room that we sit all day on a saturday and watch the watch the games we still get that dressing room laughing a joke if you like so i was one of the lucky ones um but it was still difficult but i know i know guys that have not hit rock bottom and still do because of the the difficulty is a good they go chasing the buzz and you've got to realize that that buzz is not a lot longer there anymore [Music] al every guest on the overlap does a challenge and we've got a little quiz for you nine quiz questions and we'll see how many you get right you are top goal scorer in premier league history but how many of your 260 premier league goals were scored with your right foot more or less than 200 less correct 194 she would have asked me how many of your 260 premier league goals were scored with your head more or less than 40. more just you got the number 46 is it 447. you know everything about every goal the bastard you know goalscorers correct you hold the record to the most penalties scored in the premier league at 56 but can you remember the four that you missed i don't remember the chances that i missed that's a stupid question i only remember the uh remember the goals um the ones i missed yeah i remember missing one against sunderland which was a killer uh we've not got that is it premier league penalties premier league penalties we haven't got that one [Laughter] who scored more game-winning premier league goals yourself or sergio aguero aguero it is you 68 and four whoever's put these questions there one that he loses i can't give him a win in everyone who scored more left footed goals yourself or thierry henry i would have to say it thierry i mean my i got a few but not that many jerry yeah you were 20 he was 31. which goalkeeper did you score more premier league goals against ian walker or nigel martin i would i would have to say uh nigel martin i just remember leeds was my favorite team was it nigel martin yeah it was nigel martin yeah sorry nigel how many league goals did you score in the 90th minute or later tough on that 90th minute i don't know 10 8 was it good guess how many of your league goals came from inside the box [Music] uh inside the box two eight or eight 227 and finally you played 15 matches in a league game against me how many goals did you score against the back line that i was in oh loads um how many legals 14 games did you see it 15 matches 15 matches so it would have been nine or ten six was it not that bad all right it was all right yeah i'll really well thank you very much cheers thank you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Overlap

Views: 1,720,973

Keywords: Sky Sports, Sport, Football, Premier League, European Super League, Champions League, Manchester United, Gary Neville, MNF, Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher, the overlap, overlap, g nev, nev, overlap interview, interview

Id: TV2FHwHBt00

Length: 40min 55sec (2455 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 11 2021