'That's me f*cked' - Alan Shearer reveals hilarious first conversation with Sir Alex Ferguson during infamous negotiations to join Man Utd

The ex-striker held talks with legendary United manager Ferguson and Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan on the same day as both sides attempted to sign him from Blackburn. The England legend has revealed Ferguson's first words in the meeting and admitted he was close to joining the Red Devils before he was convinced to join Keegan's Magpies instead.

"I got the call from Manchester United. It was really strange because I was meeting Kevin Keegan and Sir Alex on the same day in the same house, and I met Kevin in the morning and Sir Alex in the afternoon," he told TNT Sports.

"It was actually David Platt's mother-in-law's house. We'd sort of taken over the house because we wanted it all done in secret. I remember Sir Alex coming in the afternoon after the talks going really well in the morning with Kevin, and his first words to me were: 'Am I seeing you first or have you seen Kevin this morning?' And I went: 'I spoke to Kevin this morning', and he goes, excuse my language, he went: 'That's me f*cked!'

"Those were his first words to me. But anyway, talks went really, really well, and I thought at one stage I was going to go, and I even went house hunting around Manchester for a day. I got another call off Kevin a few days later saying: 'Can I have another half an hour with you?' And I had half an hour with him, and I just thought: 'What am I waiting for? I've got to go back home'. And that was it.

"I rang the missus up because the meeting again with Kevin was in Manchester and I said: 'There's going to be a taxi come in half an hour, and you've got to pack me a bag and put it in the taxi and send it to Manchester Airport'. I went and I signed for Newcastle."

Shearer joined Newcastle in 1996 and went on to become the top scorer in Premier League history, scoring 260 times in the English top-flight. He spent 10 years at St James' Park before his retirement in 2006.

Shearer will hope to see his former team win the Carabao Cup for the first time in their history when they face Liverpool in Sunday's final. United face Leicester in the league on the same day.