By Ian Hughes

Shearer's career statistics

Alan Shearer is the finest English striker there has been, according to Newcastle boss Graeme Souness and ex-Magpies manager Kevin Keegan.

That is the pair's verdict on the 34-year-old, who has 250 Premiership goals to his credit and is about to prolong his playing career for a further season.

But is he really the best?

For all his league goals - and no-one can argue that his achievement is not remarkable - there is not much silverware on the Shearer mantlepiece.

Maybe, once the boots have been hung up and all that is left of Shearer's career are videos of his goals, the Geordie legend may regret that the shelves are not stacked with medals instead.

Shearer won the Premiership with Blackburn in 1995 but that remains his only honour.

Twice he snubbed the overtures of Manchester United - first in 1992 when he joined Blackburn from Southampton for �3.3m and then in 1996 when he signed for Newcastle for a then world record �15m fee.

PREMIERSHIP'S TOP SCORERS Alan Shearer - 250 Andy Cole - 174 Robbie Fowler- 151 Les Ferdinand - 149 Teddy Sheringham - 139

And while Shearer never arrived at Old Trafford, eight Premiership titles, the Champions League and four FA Cups did.

Maybe, after he has finished kicking the ball around St James' Park, Shearer will spend his retirement kicking himself.

He will have plenty of time to 'guesstimate' how many more goals he could have scored had he been the target for David Beckham's pin-point crosses.

With his fantastic ability in the air and tenacity and predatory instinct in the box, Shearer would have thrived on the service.

It was a combination that worked well at international level.

For England, Shearer led from the front - captaining his country 34 times and scoring 30 goals in 63 appearances.

Shearer shone at Euro 96 but England lost in the semi-finals

He was inspirational in England's march to the semi-finals of Euro 96, where he won the golden boot after top-scoring in the tournament with five goals.

But England's exit at the hands of Germany in a penalty shoot-out seems to typify Shearer's career - with it possibly being the sort that never quite fulfilled its promise.

Shearer was the first striker to reach the landmarks of 100 and 200 Premiership goals and he remains the league's all-time top scorer.

But it is likely he would have swapped that in an instant to match Geoff Hurst's hat-trick in England's World Cup final success in 1966.

Okay, so who wouldn't?

But Souness insists Shearer "is the greatest centre-forward England has ever had - he is a phenomenon".

And aren't players judged on their successes?

Have Your Say on 606 Who is England's best striker?

Shearer will be remembered as a top-class finisher but how does he rate alongside former England strikers Nat Lofthouse, Jimmy Greaves and Gary Lineker?

Of the three, Lofthouse scored as many and Greaves and Lineker scored more international goals than Shearer - and each of them had a more impressive goals-to-games ratio.

Undoubtedly, Shearer occupies a space among the very elite of English strikers.

But you can not help wondering what might have been had he joined Manchester United and regularly tested himself against the very best in Europe.