Focus now on Kluivert as Shearer goes home

BLACKBURN ROVERS' desperate search for a player of sufficiently elevated profile to fill the massive void created by the departure of Alan Shearer is likely to lead them into fresh conflict with their near neighbours Manchester United.

It is now anticipated that both clubs will seek to sign the same player, Ajax's brilliant Dutch international striker Patrick Kluivert.

Having failed to convince Shearer he should move to Old Trafford, United manager Alex Ferguson requires a player of proven ability to pacify a support which is unaccustomed to public rejection.

Blackburn must move quickly and successfully for someone whose arrival at Ewood Park will not only underline their sense of renewed ambition but who can also convince a distraught local public to invest in season tickets.

At the tender age of 20 the abundantly gifted Kluivert fits the bill for both.

Immediately after Holland's rather dismissal contribution to the European Championship finals, Kluivert publicly admitted he would welcome the chance to join the tidal wave of Continental talent which is threatening to engulf the Premiership.

Perhaps significantly when asked about those clubs he might consider joining Kluivert mentioned just three Manchester United, Newcastle United and Liverpool.

Ajax's desire to keep Kluivert in Amsterdam is understandable but Dutch football is unaccustomed to big money deals and the prospect of collecting around £12 million may well prove irresistible.

Yesterday's news that Alan Shearer was leaving Blackburn had more than a whiff of inevitability about it. Ever since the 22nd minute of England's first European championship game against Switzerland when he finally broke a near two year international scoring drought Shearer has been re established as one of Europe's hottest properties.

Since his successful Euro 96 it has been the Old Trafford club that publicly and privately courted the England centre forward a chase that included a bid of around £12 million. However, the insistent stories and inquiries brought increasingly angry denials from Rovers and in the end they may have been happier selling Shearer to Newcastle rather than to their Lancashire rival.

Certainly that was the impression the Manchester United chairman, Martin Edwards, received. "There was no way that Blackburn would let him come here," Edwards said.

Yesterday Shearer said that he was particularly impressed" by Alex Ferguson as a manager but explained his preference for Newcastle as "the challenge of returning home and wearing the famous black and white."

The choice of staying with mid table Blackburn or moving to the team he supported as a boy must not have been really any choice at all. The size of Lancashire's disappointment was equalled only by joy both in the North East and in the Far East where Newcastle are on a pre season tour. Keegan appeared as ecstatic as a member of the Toon Army at a press conference at his Bangkok hotel.

"It just shows you the ambition of Newcastle Utd," he said. We are the biggest thinking team in Europe now. We're not the biggest, most successful team yet but we're the biggest thinking and we have tremendous support from above which allows me to buy players. I like buying players.

"Today he (Shearer) will have a medical, that's the first thing. The fee is agreed but obviously it's subject to a medical. Alan Shearer will not be joining us on this tour."

Keegan had interrupted his participation in the tour at Heathrow airport on Friday night. As he prepared to board the plane for Thailand a call on his mobile phone informed him that Walker had agreed to let Shearer "return" to his home town club.

Keegan only arrived in Bangkok two days later but he was armed with the signature of Shearer and the lip smacking thought of the best striker in Europe in a black and white shirt.

Just what number shirt the new acquisition will wear immediately became the most interesting item on the agenda for Newcastle fans. Obviously the present incumbent of the number nine jersey, Les Ferdinand, must be worrying about his future in Keegan's plans although when speculating about the possible formation of a Newcastle side with Shearer in it Keegan in private is said to have always intended to play Ferdinand alongside Shearer.

With David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla on the flanks and Peter Beardsley behind Newcastle's attack would be formidable although reservations about their defensive capabilities would remain.

If, as Keegan said, Shearer will not join the present tour then Shearer's first appearance in his beloved colours may come against Manchester United in the Charity Shield at Wembley on August 10th. Three days later Shearer will be 26. It will be another magic moment at a ground Shearer must love by now.

It will also be Newcastle's first trip there for almost 20 years when Shearer was just a five year old in Gosforth. As, it seems, with all Newcastle youngsters Shearer quickly became a Gallowgate End devotee who watched his now manager Keegan in the black and white.

But promising though he was Shearer slipped out of Newcastle as a teenager and made his league debut with Southampton 10 years ago. Two years later he became the youngest player to score a hat trick in the First Division, against Arsenal.

He graduated to the England team at 21 and when he joined Blackburn four seasons ago it was for a then record fee of £3.3 million. In his time at Blackburn Shearer has emerged as the best striker in England and won a title medal two seasons ago. However, Blackburn were unconvincing in the Champions' League and put up the meekest defence of their Premiership title. These factors and the possibility of playing in front of the fans he loves meant that Shearer's arrival at St James's Park always carried the ring of prodigal son destiny about it.