PREMIERSHIP defenders the length and breadth of the country must have breathed a sigh of relief last night as Alan Shearer finally hung up his boots after a brilliant career at the top.

Alan was a goalscoring machine during his time with Blackburn and Newcastle, and the highest compliment I can pay him is if I was Sven Goran Eriksson then I would have taken him to the World Cup this summer.

With Wayne Rooney unlikely to feature because of a broken metatarsal and Michael Owen still not one hundred per cent yet after a lengthy lay-off, Shearer would have been the perfect back-up option had he not got crocked himself in the final weeks of the season.

I know he's 35 and no longer the athlete he used to be, but he was still the best English striker in the Premiership last season, in terms of playing with his back to goal.

If Sven ends up going with a 4-5-1 formation, which looks increasingly likely in Rooney's absence, then big Al' would have been perfect as the hold-up player.

As far as I'm concerned, he's the best striker ever to play in the Premiership because he consistently came up with the goods season after season.

In total, Al scored 260 Premiership goals for Rovers and Newcastle in 441 appearances, which puts him way out on his own as the league's all-time leading scorer.

And that record is all the more remarkable when you consider some of the serious injuries he's had to battle back from along the way.

When he was at his peak, he was probably one of the top three strikers in the world.

How lucky we were, then, to see him at his absolute best.