Ruud Gullit’s decision to leave Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson on the bench for Newcastle United’s derby against Sunderland in 1999 remains one of the most talked-about moments in Premier League history. The 2-1 defeat to Sunderland, managed by Peter Reid, marked the end of Gullit’s tenure at Newcastle, as he resigned shortly after the match.
Ruud Gullit said: “Alan and I became friends after that. Alan wanted to protect himself and he got the wrong information of what I wanted – because I wanted him. The only thing is I don’t know if he had the same thing with me, I don’t know. He was very loyal to Kenny Dalglish who coached there so therefore it was not easy and of course the lesser players were close to him, because he had so much power – if you stuck to him, then you had a chance of play. I had this battle about how to handle this and eventually I couldn’t win this battle. I didn’t want to have a battle – but I wanted to do the same thing. Eventually, I saw that it was not working, and I went to the board, and said, ‘Look, it’s not working. I needed him (Shearer) in different ways.”
Ruud Gullit continued: “I was coach at Chelsea – ‘Sparky’ – Mark Hughes, I said to him, ‘You’re now 34, within the 18-yard box, that is your territory. I don’t want you to go outside, I don’t want you to chase people, I want you to only stay in the 18-yard box’. He said, ‘But I’m used to running’. I said, ‘No – that was when you were 26, now you’re 34, I need you to be just there in that area, and I want you to save that energy’. When we trained and running, the others had to do 10, I said, ‘After five, you go inside and have a massage’. Mark thanked me, at the end of his career, he could win a trophy and be important for us. Alan is a great striker – I needed him to do a little bit different to make it work. He was not informed well of the tenacity that I had, from the beginning – maybe that was my fault because I had to talk with him more and tell him what I really needed.”
The fallout from the derby decision was significant, as it highlighted the tension between Gullit and Shearer. Gullit believed that Shearer was not fully informed about his intentions and the tactical adjustments he wanted to implement. This miscommunication contributed to Gullit’s eventual resignation. Despite the controversy, Shearer went on to break Jackie Milburn’s club goal record and remains the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer. The pair have since reconciled and now collaborate as TV pundits, demonstrating that their professional relationship has evolved positively over time.
