Walsend Boys Club - The Class Of 2005

Shearer is a product of the Wallsend Boys' Club, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary at a dinner tonight, and the Scot has vowed to ensure its future prodigies to not escape the net.

Souness: "We should be getting first bite at all the young players from Tyneside - that is what we want at Newcastle. When you look at Alan, he could not have moved any further away from Newcastle after being at Wallsend, and we don't want that to happen again with future talent.

"The north-east has always been a hotbed of football and and when I played in the old First Division, there was a good selection of players from this area playing at the top level. Over the years, Wallsend Boys Club have produced some of those players, including Alan Shearer and Peter Beardsley, so long may it continue.

"Alan is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of that lot from Wallsend and one of the greatest things about Alan is his style of play.
His style of competing for every ball and leading the line up front is one of the hardest styles of play, and he is still doing it today."