The entire £250,000 cost of the long awaited sculpture has been met by former club chairman Freddy Shepherd and his family.
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Former Saints striker Alan Shearer said he was very proud and honoured to unveil a bronze statue of himself in his home city of Newcastle.
It is hard to believe that it is now over 10 years since we last saw him turn out in black and white, those 206 goals in the previous 10 years never to be forgotten of course.
“But there was no way Alan was going anyway to Manchester United, he was always going to come to Newcastle”.
While Shearer did have an ill-fated spell as the manager of Newcastle and was unable to stop them from being relegated from the Premier League, he is still seen as a legend at Newcastle and now he has been rewarded for that with a statue being unveiled at St James Park.
“I’m very proud and honoured to be stood here with this statue, I’m in great company with Jackie Milburn and Sir Bobby only 20 yards away, ” he said. That assist for the first goal I cant ask for more.
And that strategy appears to have reaped dividends already as the Champions League-winning boss has led the side into the top two of the Championship.
Benitez was unable to attend the ceremony as he put his players through their paces a few miles away at their Darsley Park training headquarters, but he said: “Alan was an incredible player, the ideal number nine, and he had a fantastic career representing this great club”.
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The alienation of Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer by Mike Ashley, summed up by the fact that the celebration party after the unveiling wasn’t inside St James Park…
