New deal means Shearer will end playing days at Newcastle

Damian Spellman

The 33-year-old hopes to put pen to paper on a new deal which will expire at the end of the 2004-05 season before tomorrow’s Barclaycard Premiership trip to Everton.

That will mean the former England skipper will have spent nine years with the club he supported as a boy, but did not join until his £15 million move from Blackburn in July 1996.