Blackburn Rovers earned Southampton FC's millions from £3.6m transfer | OneFootball

Alan Shearer broke the UK transfer fee when Newcastle United paid £15 million for him in 1996, and Blackburn Rovers profited handsomely from him.

When Alan Shearer went from Blackburn to Newcastle in 1996, the sale shattered the UK transfer fee record. It represented a huge profit for Rovers, more than quadrupling their investment.

Although born on Tyneside, Alan Shearer was first spotted by Southampton as a youth team player. They fended off other interest from West Bromwich Albion, Manchester City and Newcastle United to sign him on a youth contract in 1986.

After two years, he was promoted into their first-team squad and had an immediate impact, scoring a hat-trick on his full debut for the Saints against Arsenal in April 1988, in doing so becoming the youngest player to ever score a top-flight hat-trick in England.

Shearer would go on to become one of the hottest young properties in the English game, making his England under-21 debut in 1990 and running up 13 goals in 11 games for them, including seven in four games at the 1991 Toulon Tournament, which remains a record. He made his full international debut against France in February 1992, scoring in that match, as well.

Blackburn swoop for Shearer as the Premier League gets ready to start

By the summer of 1992, Shearer had been attracting interest from a lot of clubs. He scored 13 goals in 41 games for Southampton in the 1991-92 season and was heavily linked - not for the last time - with a move to Manchester United.

But when he did leave the club, it wasn't for Old Trafford. Blackburn Rovers had been pulled from mediocrity by the money of steel magnate Jack Walker, with money being lavished on the team and redeveloping Ewood Park, and at the end of the 1991-92 season they were promoted into the newly-formed Premier League after finishing 6th in the Second Division but beating Leicester City 1-0 in the play-off final. It was the first time the club had been in the top-flight in just over a quarter of a century.

And in July 1992, Blackburn swooped, offering Southampton £3.6 million for the young striker. Southampton agreed and - as was far more common than it is now - without a sell-one clause. Shearer again made a huge impact on his full debut, scoring twice for Blackburn in a 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace on the Premier League's first weekend.

He ended up missing half of the 1992-93 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but still managed 16 goals in 21 games for Rovers that season. Rovers ended their first season in the Premier League in 4th place, and the following season they finished as runners-up to Manchester United.

But it was at the end of the 1994-95 season, when Rovers' dreams came true. They fended off Manchester United to win the Premier League title, with Shearer having quickly formed a lethal strike partnership with Chris Sutton, who'd broken the record UK transfer fee when Blackburn paid £5 million to Norwich for him in 1994. Shearer was an ever-present in the Blackburn team, scoring 34 goals in 42 games, while Sutton chipped in with a further 15 in 40 appearances.

Newcastle swoop with a record transfer fee in the post-Euro 96 fervour

Blackburn couldn't come anywhere near defending their Premier League title, finishing the 1995-96 season 7th in the Premier League, but it was another successful season in front of goal for Shearer, who scored 31 in 35 League matches and was one of the star turns as England came within a hair's breadth of making the final of that summer's European Championships.

Manchester United and Real Madrid were both interested in him, but expectations were confounded when he instead left for his home-town club Newcastle United in 1996 for a world-record transfer fee of £15 million. Shearer couldn't deliver silverware for Newcastle, but they did at least get longevity out of him. He stayed with the club for a decade, making 303 appearances for them and scoring 148 goals.

The transfer was also a huge financial win for Blackburn, who more than quadrupled their investment on Shearer in just four years, on top of the enormous role he played in delivering their first English title since 1914. With no sell-on clause, Southampton were left wondering how much they might have cashed in had they held onto him in the summer of 1992.