ALAN SHEARER has been told that he could have tripled his career goal tally if he had played under Pep Guardiola.
The Premier League top ever goalscorer was told by former Manchester City star Fernandinho, 38, during an interview.
The midfielder won multiple titles under Guardiola before returning to his native Brazil in 2022 as he joined Athletico Paranaense.
Guardiola, 52, has had some incredible effects on attackers in his career as he helped Lionel Messi become the star he is today before overseeing Robert Lewandowski’s incredible form at Bayern Munich.
Since moving to City, Guardiola has aided the likes of Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus.
However, he has used his genius this season to get the best out of Erling Haaland.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
The Norweigan striker has bagged 52 goals in only 51 appearances in all competitions and broke the record for the number of goals in a 38-game campaign in England.
And Fernandinho is confident that he would have had a similar effect on Shearer, 52, if the two had crossed paths while the former England international was playing.
He asked Shearer while being interviewed on The Athletic: “Let me ask you something: how many goals did you score in your career?”
Shearer replied with his impressive goal record that saw him net 260 in the Premier League and other efforts that made him hit 409 in total for club and country in his career.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
To which the Brazilian claimed: “I’m sure if you had Pep as your manager, you would score even more — double or triple that.
“Pep makes you understand that football is more simple than you think.
“He’s got the power to convince you, to show you, to prove to you on a daily basis in training sessions, in meetings, and especially during games, that everything he’s telling you is going to happen.”
However, the veteran midfielder did claim that for most players to fit in under Guardiola, they need to be able to speak a few languages and be capable of playing in more than one position.
He said: “Yaya (Toure) used to say, ‘There are two things you need to play for Pep Guardiola.
“You need to speak at least three languages, and you have to be able to play in at least three different positions.
“Understand that and you are one or two steps ahead of everyone else’…”
Shearer then interrupted by saying: “Three languages?
“I can do Geordie, and I can just about scrape by in English… And three positions? That would be me completely f*****.”
Read More on The Sun
Fernandinho then responded by adding: “In every case, you can have one exception, OK?.
“You can have one special player.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
