Former Liverpool star admits he never got on with BBC pundit Alan Shearer and explains why

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Liverpool striker Stan Collymore may have never teamed up with Alan Shearer at club level, but the pair shared the pitch for England despite struggling to see eye-to-eye

Stan Collymore has explained that he never got along with Alan Shearer. The pair of prolific strikers never played for the same team at club level, with Collymore plying his trade with Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Aston Villa - while Shearer etched his name into the annals of history with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.

However, the two did share the pitch while on international duty for England, where they struggled to see eye-to-eye, according to Collymore. Speaking exclusively to the ECHO via William Hill Vegas, he recounted his strike partners over the years and their relationships on and off the pitch.

And he admitted that he never quite gelled with Robbie Fowler at Anfield despite totting up a substantial amount of goals with 'God', while also having trouble bonding with player-turned-pundit Shearer. He said: "I remember being around England camps, and my England debut - I made my England debut with Alan Shearer.

"And we didn’t really get on either. Didn’t really speak, didn’t really say much to each other. So, yeah. I think that there always is a little bit of push and pull - famously Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham didn’t get on."

Explaining his subconsious reasoning as to why he was never pally with Shearer, he added: "I think that when you score goals, and goal-scorers have to have some sort of ego, I think that you’re always thinking, ‘I want to be better than them, and I’m going to do everything I can do to be better than them'.

"So I think that that always provides a healthy tension, as long as there’s goals going in on the pitch, it really doesn’t matter if you get on with somebody on or off the pitch." Collymore's England debut came in the form of a 2-1 win over Japan in July 1995's Umbro International Trophy, lining up alongside Shearer, Peter Beardsley, Darren Anderton and Gary Neville, to name just a few.

His second cap for the country came just eight days later in the same competition, as the Three Lions were handed a 3-1 loss by Brazil, with Collymore appearing as a substitute for Shearer in the 90th minute. Collymore's third and final appearance in an England shirt came in a World Cup qualifier against Moldova in September 1997, replacing Les Ferdinand in the 83rd minute.

With no goals from his three caps for England, it's a far cry of the achievements of Shearer - who represented the nation 63 times and scored 30 goals across all competitions. After kicking off his career with Stafford Rangers in 1989, Collymore played for Crystal Palace, Southend United and Forest, before arriving at Anfield in 1995.

During his two-year stint with the Reds, the now 54-year-old scored 35 goals and provided 18 assists across 81 games, before moving on to his boyhood club of Aston Villa. After two years with the Villains and a loan stint with Fulham, Collymore moved on to Leicester City, Bradford and Real Oviedo, before retiring in March 2001.

After football, Collymore has gone on to work as a pundit with talkSPORT, a commentator for BT Sport, and as a columnist for Caughtoffisde. After hanging up his own boots in 2006 with an all-time record Premier League goal-scoring tally of 260 goals, Shearer briefly dipped his toe into the world of management with Newcastle.

However, he lasted just eight games with the club before they were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2008/09 season, with Chris Hughton succeeding him. He has since focused on punditry, known for his work with the BBC and Match of the Day, as well as co-hosting The Rest Is Football podcast alongside Gary Lineker and Micah Richards.

Shearer is also involved with the new side-a-side Baller League, which sees famous faces from football and the internet take charge of teams. Along with Lineker and Richards, they're managing 'Deportrio' and are set to take on sides ran by the likes of Ian Wright, Robert Pires, Luis Figo and Jens Lehmann.