3. Alan Shearer
For Saints: Geordie icon Shearer could have got his start with his hometown club, but a trial saw him used as a goalkeeper rather than in his favoured position as a centre forward and, as a result, Newcastle rejected him. Shearer had already been training with Southampton's youth team in previous summers, so Saints were able to step in and offer the 16 year old Shearer a youth contract. He made his debut in March 1988 and really announced himself as a player to watch two weeks later with a hat-trick against Arsenal. At 17 years 240 days Shearer was the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the top flight. In the early 90s Shearer became a key player for Saints, partnered with fellow youth team graduate Le Tissier in attack. 13 goals in the 1991/92 season resulted in a call up for the England team and the interest of a number of bigger clubs.
After Saints: Shearer became the most expensive player in British football when he signed for Blackburn Rovers, bankrolled by steel magnate Jack Walker, for
£3.6 million in the summer of 1992. Scoring 130 goals in 171 games for Blackburn, Shearer became undoubtedly the Premier League's top centre forward, winning the League title and PFA Player of the Year award in 1995. A
£15 million transfer to Newcastle in 1996 broke the world transfer record and made Saints regret that they never attached a percentage of future fees clause to his original sale. Although he never won anything at Newcastle, Shearer will always be a hero to the Tyneside crowd, scoring an enormous 148 times in 10 Premier League seasons for the Magpies and 206 goals in all. His scoring prowess was hardly less consistent for his country and Shearer is England's fifth highest scorer of all time with 30 goals from 63 caps. After scoring on his England debut while still a Saints player, Shearer would go on to play a central part in England's finest hour of the last 20 years: the Euro 96 campaign in which England progressed to the semi-finals. Shearer scored twice in the 4-1 demolition of Holland, gave England the lead against Germany in the semi and became the tournament top scorer with 5.