Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer has compared the Belgium national team's internal issues to those of when he was at St James' Park while under Ruud Gullit.
Despite the Dutch legend's success as a player-manager at Chelsea, he was unable to replicate it with the Magpies in the late 1990s although would make their last FA Cup Final to date in 1999.
Unfortunately, tension between Gullit and big-name players in the dressing room like Shearer and captain Rob Lee meant performances on the pitch soured.
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The Dutchman also infamously snubbed both Shearer and Duncan Ferguson in a Tyne-Wear derby match against Sunderland, leaving them both on the bench in a 2-1 loss before resigning just five matches into the 1999/2000 season.
Speaking on the BBC's coverage of the World Cup, Shearer explained his own experiences of unhappiness around a squad after Belgium's shock exit from the tournament, likening it to that point in his Newcastle career.
"Yeah at Newcastle when Ruud was there. It was an unhappy dressing room, you try to conceal things that are going on in the dressing room and on the training ground, it’s not easy, it looks to me that’s a similar situation to this Belgium squad."
Speaking following the goalless draw with Croatia with ensured Roberto Martinez's side exited the competition, Shearer added: " Clearly he should have played the young players. He says he’s got no regrets but he should have, they didn’t deserve to go through. I didn’t expect them to be brilliant but I expected them to be better than they were. He had to involve players who got over 100 caps, they have to be in charge of their career when it ends because of what they done. This tournament has gone on too long for those experience players.
"They’ve been really poor, I get what he is trying to say and I know how difficult it was. He couldn’t retire all those experienced players, he had to involve them because of what they’ve achieved and what they’ve done for Belgium, he knows it was the last tournament for some of them. It was just one tournament too soon."
Martinez then announced he was stepping down from his role with Belgium following their World Cup exit.
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