Is Wayne Rooney The Man To Break Alan Shearer’s Premiership All-Time Goal-Scoring Record?

Alan Shearer is pretty much Newcastle United’s version of God himself. The Geordie powerhouse had the opportunity to team up with Sir Alex Ferguson and co in 1996 which would have surely been a lethal footballing force to contend with (Giggs, Scholes and Beckham feeding Shearer and Cantona and the rest would have been absolute destruction), but instead he chose loyalty over success and went home to Newcastle and Kevin Keegan for £15m.

Big Al went on to become the Toon Army’s all-time top goal-scorer (206) and also the Premier League’s top scorer of all time with an astonishing 260 Premier League goals. Luckily for Shearer; Cristiano Ronaldo left England for Spain in 2009 (he surely would have beaten it) and his record looked untouchable.

However, Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney, who recently spoke highly of Shearer, has been consistently smashing the goals in since his debut when he made the legendary David Seaman look like a Sunday league keeper with his fierce 30-yard strike for Everton.

With the new season approaching, Wayne Rooney, at 29-year-old is currently on 185 all time Premiership goals (two goals off second place former Newcastle and Manchester United hitman Andy Cole). Recent manager Louis van Gaal has been known to drop the skillful Scouser deeper into midfield which caused a bit of controversy last season.

Rooney has the ability to open up defences in a playmaking role and his relentless running off the front man also causes problems for the opposition. With that being said, Rooney certainly has an eye for a goal and is of course a few net-busters away from beating Sir Bobby Charlton’s long standing record and becoming the England national team’s all-time top goal-scorer.

Where the moody Dutchman decides to play Rooney this season will surely play a big part on the standing of Shearer’s record. Wayne Rooney is the greatest scorer of sensational goals (one of the best being against Newcastle and a hopeless Shay Given) out of the two, although Shearer has been known to net a couple of screamers and thunderbastards in his time) but Shearer was mainly a pure goal-poaching assassin. The last of a dying breed of old fashioned English strikers.

Some will point out that 58 of Shearer’s goals were penalties, whereas just 18 successful spot-kicks from 26 attempts (a dismal conversion rate of 69%) attributed to Rooney’s goal tally. But you could also argue that Shearer came back from two career-threatening injuries and had to completely adapt his game thanks to the helpful genius of Sir Bobby Robson.

Also, Sir Alex Ferguson has been quoted as saying that Wayne Rooney struggles with natural fitness and that he doesn’t see him performing at a high standard beyond his early thirties. Fergie was undoubtedly a football manager prodigy but remember; he did once buy Djemba-Djemba so he wasn’t always right.

Both players are iconic and an absolute credit to Premier League history and whoever ends up obtaining the bragging rights of all-time Premiership goal scorer truly deserves it. So the question remains; does Wayne Rooney, at 29-years-old and 75 goals behind Alan Shearer have what it takes to become the highest goal-scorer of Premiership history? Surely with the football season approaching in six days time – Match Of The Day pundit Shearer must be getting antsy about this.

Related: Alan Shearer: Philosopher

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