I’ll always do that whether I’m valued at three million quid or three bob

I’ll always do that, whether I’m valued at three million quid or three bob. I think, if you have that approach, you’ll cut down the pressure on yourself You shouldn’t forget I get paid for doing something I love. I don’t – and I really don’t think I ever will.”When two Newcastle directors were caught on tape while talking into their champagne cups in a Marbella girlie bar, not the least of their miscalculations was a character assessment of Shearer He was depicted as Mary Poppins. Zealous in pursuit of his own goals, perhaps, a touch ruthless, no doubt, but Mary Poppins? In competitive terms, Bloody Mary, who burned her opponents, was probably a better comparison.

At least Neil Lennon might have said so when he was playing for Leicester City Lennon lunged at Shearer, and the riposte was, well, brutal. The great debate, you may recall, concerned the possibility of the Football Association studying the video horror and bringing charges against their England captain. Graham Kelly, the former chief executive of the FA, later revealed that Shearer had issued the bracing ultimatum: “Lay charges against me and count me out as captain of the World Cup team.”But then Shearer has been as hard on himself as any opponent. Niall Quinn, who like Shearer fought back from a career-threatening knee injury, recalled: “A key factor was a call from Alan Shearer. He said it was going to be very hard, but if I wanted it enough I would do it. I looked at Shearer, back on the top of the game, and I never forgot that.”As a kid at Southampton, Shearer impressed on Lawrie McMenemy extraordinary levels of ambition and determination.

“He was somebody who seemed to grasp right at the start that the game was always going to be a battle if you wanted to succeed, and he was going to win the battle The image of a gunfighter struck me very strongly. Someone might make a harsh tackle on the training field, give him a jab, but he didn’t spring back impetuously. You just saw his eyes narrow and you thought: ‘Oh, dear, he’s stored that one away.’ You could bet your life retribution would not be far away.”Twice Shearer showed an independent streak, almost to the point of the perverse, when he turned down Manchester United in favour of first Blackburn, then Newcastle. But there was perhaps a certain consistency in his refusal to merge his identity with that of the most celebrated team in the land.

Certainly there was a powerful clue to his thinking this last weekend when, after reaching that milestone against Charlton, he said: “I can’t tell you how delighted I was when it hit the back of the net. I wouldn’t get a reception like that anywhere in the country and I’ll never forget it. I’m also delighted it went in in front of my people at the Gallowgate End. I come from a working-class background, and a hard one at that, which was the reason I came back home I wanted to play in front of people I know. I know what they are, what they want and what they expect.”As we were saying, bland is in the eye of the beholder. For some of us Shearer has always been about as bland as a shipyard worker bracing himself against the wind off the North sea, or a coal-veined miner stepping into the cage.