Alan Shearer fingers out award for 5 worst footballing views in ‘stroll of disgrace’

Alan Shearer is now paid for his opinions on all things football, but the ex-Newcastle United ace was given the role of award distributor in a recent stunt

Alan Shearer found himself within an exclusive, but unimpressive, group of fellow pundits. The Newcastle United legend is known for being an England icon and the Premier League’s record goalscorer.

However, Shearer’s day-to-day activities sees him talk the talk, either as a podcaster alongside Gary Lineker or on the Match of the Day television sofa. In the same way he missed the odd sitter, Shearer has been guilty of some verbal howlers.

One of those came last year when he insisted Newcastle would overcome Sunderland in both Tyne-Wear derbies, only for his former side to lose home and away. If Shearer prefers to forget his comment, he’ll be disappointed, as his prediction has been enshrined in a ‘Walk of Shame’ exhibition Wembley Way.

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While his guess was proven wrong in the most painful way possible, his shocker has not made the top five mistakes which were voted for by 2,008 adults in a YouGov poll.

At number five sits Hansen’s notorious declaration, “You can’t win anything with kids”. The comment was made on Match of the Day regarding Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson’s youthful squad fell 3-1 to Aston Villa on the opening day of the 1995/96 campaign.

Despite boasting an average age of 26 years and 137 days – when considering players who made 10 or more appearances – they secured the Premier League and FA Cup double. They became the youngest side to achieve this feat for nearly a decade, until Jose Mourinho’s inaugural Chelsea team claimed the title with an average age of 25 years and 312 days.

Occupying fourth place is ‘Rory Talks Football’, an Arsenal fan who declared last year that the Gunners “finishing second was a better achievement than Leicester City winning the league”. The Gunners certainly weren’t 5000/1 with bookmakers to finish second when they accomplished that ‘feat’, that’s for certain.

Third place goes to Keane for his comment that Haaland is “almost like a League Two player”. He made the remark two years ago following a 0-0 stalemate between Arsenal and Manchester City.

However, it’s important to highlight that the pundit drew those comparisons when critiquing his poor overall play. In the same discussion, he acknowledged that “in front of the goal, he’s the best in the world “.

The top two spots are occupied by content creators, with Man United supporter ‘Humzy’ claiming second for declaring last year that “Ruben Amorim’s legacy at Man United will be greater than Pep Guardiola’s at Man City”. Rory Jennings claims the number one position for boldly stating in 2022 that “Haaland will flop in the Premier League”.

Shearer may have missed out on the top five, but remains optimistic that his forecast about Sunderland’s struggles was merely premature rather than incorrect. The Betfair ambassador said: “What fool said that? Let’s hope I was just 12 months early in my prediction.

“It will be a more challenging season for Sunderland this year than it was last year. I do think it will be tougher times for Newcastle as well, and we’ll have to be patient, so let’s wait and see. We all think we know what’s going to happen. But even the best of us can completely miss the mark.”