By Matthew Jones
August 30 2003

Newcastle United skipper Alan Shearer has finially started new contract talks, which will see the striker end his playing career at St James' Park, after arriving on Tyneside for £15M from Blackburn, back in the summer of 1996. Alan Shearer's current deal finishes in the summer, but Freddy Shepherd is keen to keep the 33-year-old striker at the club.

Recent reports claimed that Liverpool were ready to offer Shearer a two-year contract to go to Anfield, but the club just laughed those rumours off.

As the Chronicle reported, it was Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall who "almost broke the bank" in order to bring to bring Shearer back to Tyneside back in 1996, when they signed him from Blackburn Rovers for £15 million.

Freddy Shepherd spoke for the first time on the Shearer contract issue, and said: "We have started talks with Alan's agent about extending his contract for another year.

"It's what Alan Shearer wants and it's what we want. It would see him still here until 2005. And take my word for it, he will be going nowhere else!

"Alan has as much ambition as I, and every other person at this club, to win something for Newcastle United. And in my opinion there is still a lot of Alan to come.

"We have seen players come and go but Alan is a Newcastle United man through and through."

---