Les Ferdinand: I didn’t leave Newcastle to step out of Shearer’s shadow but club wanted to sell me

BY ALESSANDRO SCHIAVONE

Les Ferdinand has played down suggestions that he left Newcastle United to step out of Alan Shearer’s shadow in 1997.

QPR director of football joined unheralded Newcastle from the R’s in 1995 after it became clear the Magpies had a tempting project in place to end Manchester United’s dominance.

But despite his best efforts and scoring 49 goals in 79 appearances across all competitions for the club over two seasons, nothing came of it as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side ran away with two consecutive Premier League titles during Ferdinand’s time at St James’ Park.

The former centre-forward departed the club empty-handed two years later when Tottenham came calling but denied it had anything to do with Shearer eclipsing him – or a wish to return to London.

Despite playing second fiddle to the former Blackburn Rovers superstar during Euro 96, Ferdinand and Shearer tore the league apart and established themselves as the most prolific Premier League pairing in their solitary season together at St James’ Park.

And the former now emphasised that he was sold against his will as the club needed to raise funds.

He said: “No, Alan Shearer was not the reason I left Newcastle. What basically happened is when it all happened and Alan Shearer came to the club the one thing Kevin Keegan did with me, he pulled me to the side and said: ‘Look, because I am signing Shearer everybody is gonna assume that this is the end of Les Ferdinand. But I believe in you and Alan Shearer can play together and I want you to play together. The reason I am buying him is for you two to play together but there’s gonna be a lot of furore’. And that was the case.

“We had one season together and we ended up top goal scorers in the Premier League as a pairing. So it was a successful partnership. But the year Alan signed [before the 1996/1997 season], Keegan left the job and Kenny Dalglish took over and he kept saying to me the club wanted and needed to raise six million pound and that he was going to fight [to keep me].

The penny soon dropped that it was a half-hearted attempt to keep him and in the end Ferdinand set his heart on walking away from a club that was willing to cash in on him.

He continued: “I said: ‘Look, if the club want to sell me, sell me there is not a problem, you know’. I had a few options, but I grew up supporting Spurs as a kid and it was a dream about to come true, to come and play for the team you supported as a boy.”

One had to go back all the way to 1989 for the last time Tottenham finished above Newcastle in the table and Ferdinand knew it would be a step back in his career.

Yet it quickly dawned on Ferdinand that Tottenham were not only miles behind the league’s elite but also a far cry from what he expected them to be in the first place, in terms of personnel,, ambitions and managerial stability. And it goes without saying that then chairman Alan Sugar’s club was nowhere near high-flying Premier League challengers Newcastle’s standards.

While his former side was turning heads and giving Man United a run for their money, Spurs were not yet accustomed to aiming high, let alone compete for titles.

He said: “When I say ‘disappointment of going to Tottenham’, when I went to Tottenham it wasn’t the club that I expected it to be and I quantify that because in the time I was there, I was there 7 1/2 years and in my first five years we had five different managers and a change of board.

“The club was going through a lot of turmoil at the time. So from being at Newcastle where for two years we were challenging for trying to win the league, I went to a club that I was hoping was gonna be in the same bracket. But unfortunately it took a lot longer for it to get there than I was hoping for.”