Would Alan Shearer have stayed at Blackburn had Sir Kenny Dalglish remained as manager?

Would Alan Shearer have left Blackburn Rovers for Newcastle United had Sir Kenny Dalglish remained in charge at Ewood Park?

That is what former Arsenal and England forward Ian Wright asked the Magpies legend in the latest BBC Match of the Day podcast.

The pair, alongside former England and Barcelona forward Gary Lineker, have launched the podcast in recent weeks, where they whittle down the top 10s of various different categories in Premier League history.

This week it was the turn of the greatest Premier League managers and the trio were in agreement that Dalglish should make the list.

The Liverpool legend guided Blackburn to the Premier League title in 1995, with Shearer firing in the goals that led to his first and only Premier League winners' medal.

However, Dalglish moved into a Director of Football role at Blackburn in the summer of 1995 and was replaced as manager by his assistant Ray Harford.

Blackburn put up a flimsy defence of their Premier League title, finishing sixth, and also crashed out of the Champions League group stages with just one win from a possible six.

Shearer continued to score goals on a regular basis, though, and would end the season by winning the Golden Boot at EURO '96.

A tug of war ensued for his services between Newcastle and Manchester United but the former England captain decided to return home to the North East.

Shearer joined Newcastle in a world record £15million transfer and would go on to become the club's greatest ever goalscorer.

Dalglish would manage Shearer at Newcastle between 1997 and 1998 but had the Scot remained in charge of Blackburn, and the 1995/96 campaign panned out differently, would he actually have returned to Newcastle?

Here is a full transcript of how the conversation played out.

Ian Wright: "If Kenny had stayed [as manager] would you have stayed [at Blackburn]?"

Alan Shearer: "Possibly, yeah. We had finished sixth that following season after winning it."

Ian Wright: "Even after that EURO '96 you had? Obviously leading in things were going badly in terms of scoring for England and Venners [former England manager Terry Venables] said to you whatever happens you would be playing. If Kenny had stayed and then you had that EUROS, would you have stayed and turned Newcastle down?"

Alan Shearer: "I think that depends, Wrighty, because Kenny was director of football leading up to EURO 96 and you are right, I couldn't hit a barn door for England for whatever reason but I was still scoring goals regularly in the Premier League with Blackburn.

"I am sure it could have been different had Kenny have stayed on as manager because he was a great bloke, and as I have said, a great manager."