Alan Shearer took over as Newcastle manager for the remainder of the 2008/09 season. Newcastle were looking to escape relegation on the final day, but Shearer wasn’t able to get a good nights sleep for this bizarre reason.
What happened to Shearer?
Speaking on The Rest Is Football, Shearer tells the story of what prevented him from getting a good nights sleep before the big game.
He said: “When I was the manager at Newcastle, we went to Aston Villa on the last day of the season.
“We travelled down as normal, we get to the hotel, have all of our food together and the players sort of disappear and go to bed.
“I say to my staff, ‘We’ll all have a couple of drinks, just to try and make it a bit easier and make us sleep a little bit better’.
“So we went to the bar and we had no more than two drinks and I go to bed at half 11, something like that.
“I go to bed and go to sleep as normal, and this is a true story, at about two or three in the morning, I think I’m dreaming, I can hear noises.”
What were the noises?
Shearer continued: “As the manager, I wasn’t even aware this happened but you’re put into a suite. So I’ve got this lovely suite in the hotel, I’ve got a big lounge, and I’ve got my bedroom which is sort of sectioned off.
“I’m awoken in the night and I’m thinking, ‘Am I dreaming here or what?’ I can hear noises, I can hear someone playing the piano. I’ve got a piano in the lounge of the room.
“I’m thinking, ‘There’s someone in my f***ing room here’, seriously. Then it stops.
“But five minutes later I can hear people talking in the room and then I hear other things. I sort of crept up, I was a bit nervous and a bit scared.
“I look through and, I’m not kidding you, there’s a bloke and a woman on the piano and the bloke’s giving the woman one in my room! Honestly.
“I’m sweating – there’s a bloke giving a woman one on the piano in the room! Do I scream, do I shout, what do I do?
“I went out and shout, ‘Do me a f***ing favour mate, come on’. They quickly got up and sprinted out of the room.
“He was definitely playing the right tune, that’s for sure. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I don’t know whether they were members of staff in the hotel and they thought the room was empty.
Unlucky Newcastle
The Magpies were dumped out of the Premier League on the final day. They suffered a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa; curtesy of an own goal by Shane Duffy.
Shearer added: “I should have known then it wasn’t going to go right in the afternoon of the game. No wonder we got relegated!”
Chris Hutton replaced Shearer as manager and he helped the club return to the Premier League on the first attempt.
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