Shearer's move to Blackburn was a pivotal moment in the Premier League's inaugural season, backed by the ambition of their new owner Jack Walker. After an injury-hit first campaign where he scored 16 goals, Shearer exploded in the 1993-94 season with 31 goals from 40 games. The following season, he formed a formidable strike partnership with Chris Sutton and his 34 goals were crucial to Blackburn's title win, the only major honour of his career.
With a pre-prepared statement about a catastrophic international result as the starter of a press briefing that concluded with a response to a public lashing from Roy Keane, perhaps this is the day that David Courell truly arrived as FAI chief executive.
If you consider yourself a true football geek, we've got a couple of quizzes that will sort the nerds from the casuals. The first is a proper challenge: can you tell us the club these 100 players DIDN'T play for? Then, it's time to prove you were paying attention all last season with The Big Football Quiz of 2024/25. And for a final challenge, we've got a mind-bender that's harder than a two-foot tackle in the box.
A managerial appointment in the Premier League has reopened old wounds between the famous bruisers Now that Noel and Liam Gallagher have buried the hatchet - at least until they get round to banking the proceeds from the Oasis reunion tour - the bad blood between Eamon Dunphy and Roy Keane may well be the last, best and longest-running celebrity feud.
"He's done a good job in Ireland, and he's just left a job," said Keane. "It's his dynamics; the way he speaks, the way he comes across. "Duffer's been up at Celtic, he's done his coaching with Ireland. He won the league with Shelbourne last year, but then he just left recently."