Topics: Alan Shearer, Newcastle United, Premier League
Alan Shearer 'disliked' a former Newcastle manager from the moment they met and was livid after being dropped for a huge derby clash.
Record Premier League goalscorer Shearer was the prodigal son when he signed for Newcastle from Blackburn in 1996 but he did not get on well with Ruud Gullit during his spell as Magpies boss.
And their relationship reached an all-time low when Shearer was benched for the Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland, a game where Newcastle ended up losing 2-1.
Having been the captain and talisman, Shearer felt as though Gullit, appointed two games into the 1998/1999 season, wanted him out and he would have to leave his boyhood club when he did not wish to.
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"We disliked each other from the first minute," Shearer recalled.
"You just get a feeling, when he walked in and we were introduced to each other, 'Lovely boy' he used to call me and I thought we weren't going to get on.
"Within a week or two he dismissed the senior players, me, Rob Lee, Stuart Pearce, John Barnes, Ian Rush, Warren Barton and all those guys were put to one side.
"It was as if he didn't want any senior players challenging him. It was a difficult situation because I knew he wanted me out of the football club and I didn't want to leave.
"But I would have had to have left if he stayed. He sort of gambled, he put all of his eggs in one basket and left me out one of the biggest games against Sunderland."
Shearer did not know he was being dropped until he entered the dressing room, with fellow striker Duncan Ferguson also suffering the same fate as young striker Paul Robinson got the nod up top.
Both ended up coming on off the bench in the loss but were incensed about their treatment - particularly after Gullit called them out in a post-match interview.
Shearer made the decision to go and barge into the former Chelsea and AC Milan star's office the morning after - only to find that a furous Ferguson had got there before him.
He added: "To walk into the dressing room and see your name on the board and you're not playing, that's how myself and 'Big Dunc' found out we were left out.
"The result was 2-1, finished the game - obviously angry. I got home and watched Match of the Day - it was mine and Duncan's fault that he got beat according to Ruud.
"I went in bright and early, got the kids up an hour earlier than they should be for school - dropped them off at 7.45 which is unheard of - the doors weren't even open.
"I go racing down the motorway in the car and pull into the training ground and luckily I see his car's there. I go bursting into the office, I look in there and Big Dunc's already beaten me to it. He's sat in there tearing strips off the wall beforehand."
Gullit left Newcastle five games into the 1999/2000 season and was replaced by Bobby Robson, who brought back Shearer's love for football and got Newcastle into the Champions League.
Shearer and Gullit have done punditry on BBC together since hanging up their boots and remarkably, they have put their previous feud in the past to become good friends.
"I don't half get on well with him now though, it's great," Shearer said on the Match of the Day top 10 podcast.
"We're good friends next, text each other and play golf. I said to him if you were this nice when you were Newcastle manager than you might still there now."
