Alan Shearer told me he was going to 'flatten my mate' after Newcastle legend got explosive text
Alan Shearer told Kieron Dyer he was going to 'flatten' Craig Bellamy after the Newcastle United legend received an explosive text from his former strike partner.
Bellamy, who was on loan at Celtic at the time, picked up the phone after seeing an interview Shearer gave on television following Newcastle's 4-1 FA Cup semi-final defeat against Manchester United back in 2005. Bellamy later detailed in his book that he messaged his ex-team-mate to say he 'needed to look' at himself because his legs were 'shot'. Let's just say that did not go down well.
"I can remember the repercussions," Dyer told Open Goal. "Bellers must have texted him and Al came up to me and just basically said, 'I'm going to flatten your mate'. It was along those lines.
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"Then it got a bit messy. You can imagine it. Al had every right to because he had just lost an FA Cup semi-final but when you're in your early twenties, like Bellers was, you're immature. Bellers thought this was a good time to give him some banter and the banter was wrong. I bet if you spoke to Bellers now, he would probably say it was.
"They were never best friends, but they were colleagues. They never had any friction, but I wouldn't have liked to get that text if I just lost an FA Cup semi-final. Would Bellers do it now? Of course he wouldn't."
Chairman Freddy Shepherd vowed there was 'no chance' of Bellamy returning to Newcastle after 'taking on a hero' in Shearer and the Wales international was sold to Blackburn Rovers just a few months later. Much time has passed, of course, and Shearer later said that the rapid Bellamy was 'brilliant' for him and helped him 'get another year or two' out of his career with his pace.