Former Newcastle captain, walking hero and all round working class hero Alan Shearer can probably go to bed happy every night that he will forever be beloved in Newcastle, and is assured of adoration even despite helping relegate the club. He is untouchable, having scored a frightening number of goals for the club, and more importantly giving everything to the cause every game, and looking double-hard along the way, but for a lot of people who don't see through black and white eyes, he's the most hated man in football. For Sunderland fans, Shearer is Darth Vader - the personification of everything wrong about Newcastle United and their fans - and for far more other football figures and fans, he's something of a pantomime villain, but one who always got away with his crimes. That's probably why Aston Villa fans were so happy to see Newcastle relegated under him, and why almost every opposition team as a song about him. They weren't the only ones to hate him though...
11. The Creosote Industry
When Shearer admitted dryly that he had celebrated winning the Premier League with Blackburn by creosoting his fence, he started the image of himself as the boring man's boring man, devoid of joy, wit and a sense of fun. Whether he was joking or not (Rob Lee would suggest he was), Shearer indadvertedly also suggested that the very act of creosoting his fence was the most boring thing imaginable, staining the image of the previously unmolested brands and setting the creosote industry back years.
When Shearer admitted dryly that he had celebrated winning the Premier League with Blackburn by creosoting his fence, he started the image of himself as the boring man's boring man, devoid of joy, wit and a sense of fun. Whether he was joking or not (Rob Lee would suggest he was), Shearer indadvertedly also suggested that the very act of creosoting his fence was the most boring thing imaginable, staining the image of the previously unmolested brands and setting the creosote industry back years.